How many names have you gone through?

[Shelby]

I am struggling with deciding on a name for my femme persona. The one I use on this forum is not one my wife and I use anymore and the one that we have been using most recently just doesn't seem to fit.

So my question to the group is how many different names have you "tried out" before you settled on the one you're using and how did you know it was the right one?
Additionally, when you're home with your significant other does it even matter? Do you just use your male name?

We're thinking it might make it easier if we could find a name that is close to my male name but, any name we think of has an association to someone or some thing that brings up unpleasant thoughts. For some reason I thought coming up with a name for myself was going to be so much easier.

[Hanna]

I don't know the the "right, proper" name makes that much difference.
I chose Hanna because a friend of my sister, whom I always thought was cute, sincere, and fun to be around, had that name.
Then I started going on different websites and tried to log on using Hanna. The name was always taken. Then I tried Bobbi- my name is Robert, and that was taken also.
So being the true Southern gal I tried "Bobbi Hanna"- no one grabbed that name yet. I kinda like it, and I now go by either name.

[Estefania]

I had never even thought about getting a female name until I found a cd/tg chat room. And the one I picked then is the one I have had since. May not be my legal name, but it is my name, the one I picked for myself so in many ways is more mine than my legal name.

Gaby

[KimberlyS]

My femme name is one I selected when I was on a different site. The site had little to no moderation. The site was a mix of good information, trolls, and pushy TGs. Many of the pushy TG's had the mind set that any TG was on the path to full transition where they accepted it yet or not. They did not like CDers using male names and one day after all the pushyness, I just threw out a name and it has stuck. I have thought about changing to a name I like better, but having been here so long I figure this is the name people know me by.

You can change your name here as long as it is within the site rules for names, just PM SL our admin. But there is nothing saying your selected name has to be the same name you use on this or any other site. Many people use alias names when logging into web sites and setting up user names. What ever you decide for a name, we will let you come back.

kimberlys cd
joe in a skirt

[April Rose]

Like Gaby, I only picked a name to log on to CD websites. The informal version of my male name is androgynous enough that our friends 2 young daughters kept getting my and my wife's names mixed up. For a while they thought my name was hers, and hers mine. My wife calls me by the same name whether I am dressed as a woman or not. I try to integrate my femininity, not separate it.

On some earlier, defunct websites, I called myself Justine. This was the name of one of the characters, and one of the novels, in Laurence Durrell's excellent "Alexandria Quartet". She was an Anima figure, admirable and enigmatic. Her power was in her mercurial nature and the awareness of her own beauty. She was dark and mysterious, and I just loved it. I have always felt that if crossdressing doesn't honor and empower women and the feminine side of nature; then what is the point?

But, again, I used it for the websites. At home I was me, in a dress or not.

As I have stated in other threads, I chose April Rose because April is my birth month, and I love roses. It has had the serendipitous unintended consequence of giving me an extra layer of internet security. It turns out there are several lovely media figures, models and actresses, and a Connecticut bridal shop with the same name. If you Google "April Rose" it comes up with hundreds of articles, none of which have anything to do with me.

If you want a name you can really Identify with, Look at women in your family whom you admire, Or Women in History, politics or the arts. I can't state it enough: what we do, if it is legitimate, ought to honor and emulate the real women of the world.

That said, I think Keay is a lovely name, and not one that everyone has.

[Anne Bonny]

Interesting....Suggestions...what are the names of other women in your family? We have a Trudy Ann...A Nancy Virginia, My mother was Helen Elizabeth...searching the family tree there was a Sarah...that may be a good way to find one.

I thought had I been born a girl what are the likely names that could have been chosen for me by my parents?

Then there are names I always liked like Margaret, Mary, and Anne which are common and rather strong female names.

I know of a trans race car driver who changed Charley to Charlie...so if you can alter just a letter or two and happen to have a name that is not really gender specific there you go and it is probably who your parents would have called you since they chose the male form.

Or you can look at your name...sometimes you can recall in childhood someone teasing by feminizing your male name as blank..."anne, or adding an ine to the end of it, or an ette or something like that.

Of course there are women you have known with pretty names too...

I chose mine because there was a crossdressing woman pirate named Anne Bonnie and I liked the name Anne. I also like to sail and it's kinda neat to carry her name.

I also decided once I had selected my name that should be it until the day I die as it is for everyone or 99% of people. It should be a final thing. I do of course keep my male name because I am gender fluid so when I present male I am that name, when I am feminine I prefer my female name and pronouns or would prefer them if I were surrounded enough by my friends for that to become common practice for me.

[DonnaT]

Just the one.

[Eileen (SO)]

Still dressing in secret, hubby had to choose a femme name for a forum and meetings. Since some meetings were at bars and she doesn't hear that well in crowds, her name sounds much like the guy name. Most times, our birth name doesn't match our personality, but we keep them. My dear PT girlfriend intends on keeping her name till forever.

When dressed, I really try and mostly succeed, to use her femme name. It is after all part of the role play. When catalog browsing, I might ask if she would like an item instead of 'you' when in male mode.

Eileen

[Ms. Erin]

I have only used one female name, which became my new legal name. I choose Erin Paula, while my old name was Erwin Paul. Since my parents choose my previous name at birth, I didn't want to take that away from my parents, and it help with my signature, it remained the same.

[Lacey Hadley]

When I finally began to dress full en femme, including with hair and make up I had to find a name that suited the female inside me and one that I saw when looking at the mirror or myself in photos. It took me a while to think about feminine names. I ran through names of female music artists I like and names used in music. That said in the end I found Lacey just sort of fell in place for me. A lady friend I was dating at the time whom I confided in my CDing as she was into it, liked the name Lacey for me. Lacey really does represent me en femme very well. I find it girlie but also strong and confident as a name, which suits my typical male side which of course is a part of me. Also a name that for me feels upbeat and fun. I am quite upbeat when dressed as a girl. I 'd say as Lacey I am generally more happy, upbeat and calm, than I am when in drab.

I will say this and from watching on YOUTUBE an RT television programme about transgender girls in Russia, one of the trans girls who went with SRS surgery and lives in Russia as a female now, has her beautiful female name taken from her boy name which she now goes as Kira... such a lovely name. If you look up the series on Youtube, Kira is a beautiful trans girl and so suits her feminine name.

Another beautiful name I like and is from my favourite female artist Stevie Nicks, is the name Rhiannon. Also a great Nicks/Fleetwood Mac song.

[ReneeElizabeth]

i've gone through many names, stevie was my first name when i had my first transformation, then for a while i was charlene, then laurie, then joanne and now renee, i actually wanted to use renee back when i had my 1st transformation at cd tips, but the owner, lynda said she didn't think the name fit me and she suggested stevie, which i did like since i'm a fan of stevie nicks,
the other names were just names i liked at the time.

[Davita]

This old thing has had names like "hey you," but if you want to make me happy, I'm Davita -- always have been. I took several months to get a first name and almost a long to get a middle name.

[Heather W]

Just the one. There was a Heather in my grade school class and I always thought she was cute and wanted to be her, just stuck to it.

[Noeleena]

Hi,

Names given to me by my Mom though the man who was meant to be my father made life a matter of we Mom and I had to flee from him ,and we did and only just or be killed,

So to names strange at first and at the end youll understand

noel or no-el Edward mannfried Von Reutchthos Loch-head,

Mom did not wont me to have my german and Prussian names as first names so put her foot down and said no way so no-el and Edward was to be my first names .
being born with my german background at the end of the 2 nd WW was a no no. to be known with german names

Later because of an other difference I was born with I had my two names changed to noeleena Edwina Loch-head to save confusion and make life a little more bearable.

and at that time being different it was not reconised as is more so now,

When Mom chose my two names no-el is female any way as well as male and Edwina is just a simple miner change plus of cause noel or noeleena really does say and others know both names do represent who I am as you look at both male female together and I,m happy with that .a female with some male aspects,
And wether Mom knew when she gave me those names or not I was different I wont ever know yet she knew I needed those names, so gong back 70 years Mom got it right,

...noeleena...

[AileenT]

Yes, I didn't think of a name until I joined a forum group, Chrissie popped up immediately since she's a girl that I would love to be like. Cute, sweet, looks awesome in jeans, slim, athletic with creamy complexion Then a few years ago I met a woman in cyberspace and eventually told her about my feminine side. She loved it and embraced it, and we'd go through catalogs picking out clothes for me, and we also had very sexy times together as two women. In so many ways, I melted with her body and persona. Her name is Irene, and so I told her to call me "Aileen" and it's stuck and has a lot of power for me.

I still dress and feel like Chrissie a lot...slim, pretty, athletic and sweet. I like Heather, too....