name change question

My name was Timothy Douglas Hignutt, I legally changed it to Diana Timara Hignutt in October 1998.

Diana is the goddess who rules the moon, femininity, and transformation, and I was deeply involved in some metaphysical workings along those lines at the time, and, I really like the name.

Timara was a tip of the hat to my old name. I basically just inverted my intitials.

My TG ex changed his name from James Sylvester to Jaelynn Susan about 5 years after the divorce. Susan was my middle name before I legally changed my name. I'm not sure if that was a tip of the hat to me or if that was the only name he could think of.

Jaelynn was an RP character he ran for several years before coming out, FWIW.

shaldna said:

And can I ask also, did you find that people who knew you took easily to calling you Diana? Or did it take a while?

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It took less time than I expected, except for one uncle, and he took two years to get the new name right. Obviously, you have to allow people to take their time getting used to such a dramatic change. Often, I could see people feeling bad screwing up the name or the pronouns. You can't get too mad at people, not if they're trying.

Diana Hignutt said:

My name was Timothy Douglas Hignutt, I legally changed it to Diana Timara Hignutt in October 1998.

Diana is the goddess who rules the moon, femininity, and transformation, and I was deeply involved in some metaphysical workings along those lines at the time, and, I really like the name.

Timara was a tip of the hat to my old name. I basically just inverted my intitials.

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I like your new name

A lot of trans people go through a few experimental names before settling on one they like. Some people choose a name similar to their previous names, although it's a bit stereotypical.

Right now, despite considering some very different names, I feel most comfortable with Kayla. (My birth name is Caleb, which I've always pronounced "KAY-lub." And which people have sometimes misheard as "Taylor" or "Kayla" anyway.)

Okay, so I haven't actually transitioned yet, but I'll play this game.

When I first realised I was trans, I chose the name Sarah Hart, because Buffy was Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sabrina the teenage witch was Melissa Joan Hart... I was really into those shows back then.

Nobody ever called me by that name, because I never really mentioned it. I did tell one female friend who knew I was trans that I'd like the name Sarah. She told me to pick something a bit more unique, simply because her name was unique.

I disregarded that comment, but years later I came up with a character for my first book, named Passion. She was a Goddess. So I toyed around with being called Passion. It didn't stick.

But Passion the Goddess was based on Hecate the Goddess, who I was familiar with from my Pagan days (right around the time of Sabrina and Buffy). Hecate was my favourite. Anyway, a couple years ago, I decided I wanted to open a gothic clothing store (if I ever could afford it) and call it "Hecate Black".

Cue this year, when I decided to drop the "he" and call myself "Cate Black". It plays right into opening the store, it's a perfect name for my books (especially the lesbian vampire erotica) and it reminds me of Hecate.

I'm not sure if I'll change my mind yet again or not, but at the moment I'd be "Cate Black" and that's good for me. And yeah, that's how I came up with the name.

Still no middle name, though if push came to shove I could just use Sarah as a middle name, because I'm still a huge fan of Buffy.