#naming yourself

[labratofthemonth]

imagine naming yourself after your favorite character from a video game

heh

heheh

uh

couldn’t be me

[pyrozketches]

No one talks about how fucking frustrating naming yourself is. Within the past year I’ve gone through the names Jaydon, Newton, Richie, Adam, Jesse, Will, Ashton, Elliot and I fucking hate all of them. I don’t want to be called my dead name but god I wish I could just be named something and that’s the end of it.

[sisterhildegardis]

Its well known amongst the trans community that the names we choose for ourselves vary in levels of seriousness and normalcy. Sometimes its a fairly normal name with a very deep/personal meaning, sometimes its microwave onomatopia. Me personally i rolled a "50s housewife name generator" and when i saw "phoibe" i cried for like half an hour. Not sure where that puts me on the serious-silly and deep-surfacelevel spectrums, but

[teawiththegods]

Hi Jessie! I've recently discovered I may be nonbinary and I was in the process of picking out a new name. Would it be considered offensive to pick a name inspired by one of the gods/a hero or nymph?

Hello, love! Congratulations on your discovery!

So it really depends on what you mean but “inspired by”. There’s nothing wrong with picking a name that is similar to or associated with a deities name. What’s seen as disrespectful is taking the name directly.

Honestly I’m not sure if that also applies to heroes and nymphs. It is a bit more complicated bc there are some names that have become quite popular outside of the pantheon such as Helen, Jason (who wants to be named after Jason tho 😒), and Cassandra. Personally I would lean on the side of caution and not name myself directly after any member of the pantheon but that’s just me.

[wild-at-mind]

I’m reading Earthsea at the moment (I got a compilation of the first 4, currently on The Farthest Shore), and I really love the approach to naming. For people who haven’t read them yet, characters have a true name which is kept secret to everyone except those they trust the most, and is given around early teens. People need your true name to work magic on you, so you use another name for the day to day.

From when I was in my early teens to my late teens all my closest friends called me Kai. But the name was given to me by my abuser, from the incredibly toxic and damaging ‘friendship’ I had for my entire adolescence and into my mid-20s. I abandoned the name completely until very recently because of that association. For a long time, that name felt like the essence of my own immaturity, when I didn’t know how to look after my own emotions and protect myself from harmful people. But I liked being called it. So maybe instead, Kai is my true name, and my abuser knew it and had that’s why he had power over me, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t belong to me, even though I use another name in my daily life. And recently I told the person I trust most, my partner, and he always calls me Kai now and my name feels safe with him. Whatever I might go on to call myself, change my name legally if I choose that as part of a transition, Kai will always be my name.

(Even if my friend says it’s cliche- see previous post!!)

[fatiguedtoast]

i didn't create this account and name myself toast because my name was toast... but now i'm kind of considering it

[todays-shadow]

WHY is naming myself so stressful