Our Female Transgender Voice Therapy experts recognize the challenges that a transgender person may experience while transitioning.
For a transitioning transgender person, choosing the right name is not much different from naming a new baby. However, instead of a baby, they are naming themselves.
Some scour through baby naming books, or think back to favorite characters in movies. Others may turn to their family tree and look for a name inspired by their ancestors.
Changing one’s name is a difficult task because it is so public, while at the same time it is an intensely personal decision.
Last year, Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, told Vanity Fair that choosing your own name is one of the hardest things in life. She chose Caitlyn simply because she had liked it for a long time.
Democratic primary for the U.S. House seat, Misty Plowright (33) shared that she started her search by hunting through the Social Security Administration’s website for the most popular baby name lists in the 80s. Several other famous transgender people have spoken about going through a similar method of searching through lists of names for one that feels perfect.
It is staggering the lengths that transgender people must go through just to blend in.
Some are highly secretive about the names they are considering, while others solicit input and discuss potential names with their friends openly on social media. There are transgender people that change their last names as well, to separate completely from their previous identity. Some refer to their former names as “dead names” or simply do not speak of them, feeling that their birth name was not really them at all.
