HOW I CHOSE MY MIDDLE NAME // Trans Storytime II

[@MrSafeTCam]

If your middle name was Tai, then "Jackson Tai Bird" would be an anagram of "Jack is not a bird" which is your username and that would be mildly amusing.

[@animalover21218]

He should honestly just change his middle name again... maybe alternate monthly?

[@fil_is_weird1936]

Cameron Barlin YOU ARE A GENIUS

[@KyPaMac]

The "Marvolo" approach.

[@moonbyulyi5100]

Cameron Barlin and in my cpuntry tai is poop, and im in indonesia

[@Gigi-bo3zr]

I missed what it actually is

[@Ghdkgifhfhdh3]

Jackson T H U N D E R Bird THUNDERBIRD yooo

[@prettymonst3r]

My name was going to be Emily, because my great-grandmother who my mother loved deeply was named Emily, but then my cousin was born five months before me and my aunt swiped the name Emily. So with five months left in her pregnancy, Mom had to come up with a new name for me. I've asked her, she said that she considered naming me Emma Lee to spite my aunt, but instead with the help of my grandmother, named me Kathryn instead. I actually would've loved to be named Emma Lee, I love that level of salt.

[@BeingLolaStar]

KaytiKazoo I went to high school with a group of cousins. All first cousins in a town of 4,200 people. There were other siblings and cousins etc but the ones that always confuses me was, Jesse G he was two years older than me then his cousins Sam G (full name Samantha) who was a year younger, their cousin Jessica G who was two years younger, Sam's sister Jess G(full name Jessica) who was another year younger and finally Jessica's sister that was two years younger, Samantha G. So in six years the family had three Jess G's and two Sam G's and it was HELLA confusing. Ironically one of them now has a child called Emma-Lee

[@arisymphony]

This is a great video, Jack! But WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME???

[@sid9666]

pretty sure he went with both eric and thomas!

[@DeliveryMcGee]

So JETB? I guess there are worse things your initials can spell than the term for cold-weather aviation fuel. :p (In most of the world except the frozen north/south, we use Jet A to power our airliners)

[@violetschell4247]

I thought he wasn't going to tell anyone what his middle name is

[@irelandcampbell5596]

My name is Ireland Faith, but i was going to be Hannah Ireland. My initials would have been HIC. Thanks mom for almost destroying me. But my 4 yr old sister at the time came home from school one day and said "can we name the baby Ireland Faith? Because Ireland just sounds cool and i really like Faith Hill." So my mom let my sister name me after a country and a country music singer.

[@_lauxx_]

When I was 4yrs old, just learning to read, I though the movie Alice in Wonderland was all one word... So we ended up naming my sister "Allyson" as in "Alice in" because that was the movie my grandma gave me when my sister was born

[@PommeDeTerre8]

You had a lucky escape, my initials are HIK but since I'm trans I get to fix it. It's like the one good part of being trans.

[@arrowfaust]

I’m trans (f2m) and right now I’m going by Arrow! Which I think is pretty sweet. Sometimes it sucks though since people always ask if I chose that name based off the TV show Arrow. And I’ve never even seen that show, but I’m going to stick with it anyways. My middle name is Elizabeth, and I’m really thinking I want to change it to Daniel! Since all my close friends and partner call me both Arrow and Daniel, I think it’d be amazing to go by both names, instead of just picking one of them as my first name. :^)

[@maverickzalewski2871]

I love that. Hellyeah Arrow Daniel Faust

[@hpispwn98]

one of my favorite artists/past online friends had a middle name that was literally just the letter t. like whenever her art was published in a magazine or something, it just was printed as a T with no period afterwards, and eventually she told me that that was just her middle name. just T. amazing

[@jessstarr09]

My mom denies it, but according to my dad he chose the name Jessica for me after a character in Logan's Run. I think that means my love of dystopian fantasies was predestined.

[@Trekkifulshay]

As soon as you said T middle names I thought of, Tiberius. :P My mother found a baby in the park well she found a little girl alone with a baby. Turned out they'd been abandoned. My Dad's like you can't keep kids you found in the park like stray cats. So when she got pregnant and had a girl she kept coming back to the name the baby in the park had. So I'm named after that baby. She's like about 2 years older than me so I wonder if she's okay and about her big sister.

[@ItsRadishTime]

I'm a cis person, but i got married when i was really young and changed my last name. When I got divorced (lol) and was changing my name back, there was no possible combination of my names and letters that i could get a gmail address for. So I decided why not change my middle name to something that would be available for internet purposes. I remember spending so much time picking that middle name and having the same kind of worries you had about whatever i picked being weird and being judged for it. I thought I wanted it to start with a C or a D so it could rhyme with my other initials, T and B (because my old nickname as my married name was TBP) and had picked one out but then in the courthouse filling out my forms i panicked about explaining it to my parents and switched it to my mom's maiden name, that starts with an H. I don't have a cool rhyming nickname anymore, but it is kind of nice having that family connection.

[@eustacia03]

I hadn't realized you had gotten divorced. Welcome to the "divorced before 30" club. *hands you a mint julep*

[@miriamkorver1443]

"divorced (lol)" Never heard of someone saying that divorce is a laughable matter... :P

[@KD-dw9hh]

I'm not trans, but was given a name I absolutely despise. Ever since I was in about 3rd grade (no joke) I had been expressing to my parents that I felt it didn't fit me. They were perfectly fine with it, but wanted me to wait until after middle/high school. Now 21, yet I'm still having a hard time finding something that feels right. Your videos were helpful and I really hope I discover what mine is meant to be.

[@Mothman_In_a_T-Pose]

Doodle it the crap out. Try cringy names, browse naming websites, etc. I went through dozens of pseudonyms before settling on the ones I use--some of which were pure and utter cringe. (Like Lila Ree. Cute, but obviously fake. And it was based off a stuffed rabbit I owned.) Also, trying to combine and mashup different parts of your name can yield some pretty cool results. Alma (Latin for "soul") is formed by the first two letters of my given and surname, Saon (an archaic form of Sean, which means power) is formed by the last two letters of my given and surname.

[@jennastannard7085]

My middle name is Mika it means wise little raccoon in some language. I used to not like it because I thought that it was weird but it makes a nice little factoid and is very unique

[@jackisnotabird]

Uhm, yeah that's an awesome meaning. Plus, I mean Mika the musician is awesome.

[@jennastannard7085]

Thanks! I really like your videos, it's so cool to follow your story!

[@micah3917]

So i'm nonbinary and trans (didn't really came out yet) and my parents wanted my name to be "Nicole" when I was born. But one of her relatives also wanted to name their child like that so they kinda argued and we got different names (that means neither of us have that name). I came out to myself summer 2018 and really wanted to change my name .-. So I chose a name that I already used cuz I always hated my birth name lol So the name (Mira) is a combination of my birth name and my friends name which we used to kinda "ship" ourselves and yeah So I went for that name But after some time (three months) I wanted to change my name again cuz it was too feminine but I couldn't finde one and that's why I introduced myself as "Nameless" for a while (Damn that was really awkward) A few weeks passed and I talked with another friend of mine (who's also nonbinary) about some names I could choose Then another friend came and she said she liked guys with the name "Joshua" And I was like "That's it! That's the PERFECT name for me! I'll take it" Well, she didn't really like my decision cuz she dreamed of her dreamboy having that name but whatever The funny thing is, that when I searched up the meaning of "Joshua" on Urban dictionary, it had almost the same meaning as my birthname qwq Yeah That's my story lmao

[@lycanthrop-ee9971]

My brother was five when I was born, and he had a few ideas: -Gruff -Alesha Johnson -Majelle -Avalanche I'm still salty they didn't name me Avalanche.

[@_inhisbluegardens]

So I'm a twin and when my mum was pregnant with me and my brother she didn't want to know the sex of the babies until we were born, so she just had a bunch of names picked out that she liked. Her favourite girl's names were Beth and Jessica and her favourite boy's names were Sam and Ben. *record scratch, cut to January 1996* It's a boy and a girl! Beth and Ben. I have spent the last twenty-one years trying to convince people that my mother didn't intentionally give us cute, matchy-matchy names.

[@ohorn2122]

I’m a twin and my mum did that with me too, she chose William for the first boy and Micheal for the second boy, Olivia for the first girl and Erin for the second girl, so I go by Oli know bc I prefer it to Olivia

[@ceve]

It also happened to my baby siblings. My mum was super against matchy names for twins (that are very common in my country) so she decided she'd pick very different sounding names so she chose Alejandro and Olivia. Well, now their nicknames are Ale and Oli. She failed miserably and didn't see it coming until after birth.

[@kornflakes3862]

I had no idea that T was known as a cool middle initial. I'm ftm trans and my legal middle name (since birth) is Tate and I think it's so cool and am definitely not changing it when I do legally change my name. And this video made me think its even cooler.

[@jackisnotabird]

I don't think it's a well-known or agreed upon thing, but I've always thought it was the coolest! Tate is a great name! The mayor in my town growing up was William D. Tate.

[@BookBird2963]

I'm Agender. My current first initial is E. I really like the name Saylor. Sometimes on the internet, I go by E. Saylor.

[@Jax_4200]

I chose to have two names that I go by, for family I chose Ellis, which is a masc/neutral version of my deadname so it wouldn’t be too hard for them to use. And for my new school and friends I chose Jax, which is entirely my idea and chosen name. Both are my legal names now :)

[@ahmik3169]

My original name was Xoicha, which means flower, and my middle name is Violet. I hate it! Changing my name to Ahmik as soon as I can. Ahmik means Beaver and can symbolize skill, patience, and leadership. I just switched out one native american name for another one I liked better. I'm not a flower boy.. but I'm still thinking of a new middle name. I have years to think, and I'm very used to being called Ahmik now!

[@midnightthoughts8519]

That's awesome! What tribe is it from?

[@HeyItsAlyssa94]

I'm a cis female. So, I don't have a cool story like you, but in Jewish tradition, you name your child with the same initial as a past relative (also taking their Hebrew name). I am named after my mother's grandmother, Anna, so my name is Alyssa. And my middle name comes from my father's great uncle, I believe? So, my Hebrew name was taken from both of those relatives.

[@TravelingwiththeGramkracker]

Alyssa Levenberg you have a way cool story.... history!!!!

[@row2matow557]

Yeah I’m Jewish too and am named the same way! Except I’m genderfluid and want to change my name so thanks for reminding me that I should think about that too :)

[@lewistrotter1039]

JET B. LIKE THE FIRST JET WAS TAKEN, AND YOU'RE THE BACK UP, I LOVE IT!!!

[@jacksonlam8032]

I made my first name Jackson but then got the "bright idea" of making my middle name Michael and did not make the Michael Jackson connection until later 😅

[@jackfrostghosts]

my middle name is Theodore, and it has a small connection to Teddy from Harry Potter, as i love harry potter :D

[@isaacsaward3789]

Alex Moriarty My first middle name is Theodore too! I am trans, and it was one of the names I was considering. My mum always likes to joke that if my first two names had been switched then my initials would be TITS... So it's a good job I didn't do that then!

[@rosefox4245]

Alex Moriarty I really really hate to have to tell you this but Teddy comes from Edward. (I know, I hate this myself)

[@jackfrostghosts]

YlvaRose I know 😊 but I liked Theodore better and the name has a connection to the name teddy which has a sneaky connection to harry potter and teddy 😃

[@rosefox4245]

Alex Moriarty that is pretty smart indeed

[@Kikinekosama]

4:30 jeez, this is so true. I have an uncle that constantly gives his opinion that trans people should ask their parents which name to have. And he's asked me lots of questions about how and when I plan on transitioning. It's so invasive... I don't have any advice other than be confident you made the right choice. My mom never said anything about the name I chose, never said she didn't like it. So I'm keeping my name, but I might use the name she had in mind for my middle name.

[@breshannondevereaux5712]

Jackson, you are an exceptionally eloquent young man! I REALLY ENJOYED your coming out video. KUDOS to you for taking responsibility for representing those who identify as Trans. In this time, with how complicated life can be, it is easy to turn your back on the things you 'should' do and focus only on the ones we 'want' to. I admire and respect you, Jack. You are one HELL OF A role model. I'd be proud if you were my Son, that's for sure! Great Job!

[@charliehobbes2363]

yes yes yes to everything you said about the criticism and pressure and everything falling on you for the name you pick when you're trans! it's so real and it may seem stupid but it really does affect you (or me at least) a lot more than you know it should haha "you don't even need the little voices in your head when you're trans, people will say it to you anyways" spot on

[@benf288]

I picked the name ben without even thinking about initials, and I honestly don’t even know how I came up with it. It wasn’t until a few months later that I realized my initials were BFF or just BF and I honestly love it

[@ajbradley4617]

I totally agree with the whole self conciousness of people questioning name choices. It's why I chose my dads middle name for my name, because it's so easy to explain and no one can really judge me for it.

[@faithdiaz8859]

I’m currently feeling that! Trying to find a name is HARD, especially when u are grappling with the fact that u like a name that’s not western and how your parents would feel about that! Love this video ❤️

[@Xoinkxoink]

For a solid minute, my dumbass self was like, 'is there not a video for last names?' and then I realized, you don't have to change your last name

[@emerythul4531]

I mean, I noticed that my initials would be ET during the time I was choosing my name, but it wasn't the most important part. And I totally understand the whole choosing a name that your parents were thinking of. That's kind of what I did, because my mom wanted to name me Emerson, but I thought it was a little pretentious, so I went with Emery. People do comment on the ET thing tho 😂😂

[@kadethefanperson1025]

I just came out to my friends and parents as trans and am thinking of a name. So far I've shortened Katie to Kade, so before I'm ready to be trans publicly. But this really helped and I know I'm late but thanks so much!😄

[@aaronwulf3129]

I only just started considering changing my middle name because it’s fairly unique (Ayla) but I decided it’s too feminine for me, and I’m looking around at different ones :) I’m back to that constant uncertainty I had with my first name which is both confusing and scary but also a little exciting

[@ashercanmakeapun4554]

Thank you for the tips!! I had a few names, so I asked some people which would suit me if I was a boy, and one time someone chose the one I picked and it made me smile. I later chose my middle name because the thought of it being my middle name made me smile. So that helped me. I’ve also heard from a KZbinr they were leaning towards these certain types of names but it would’ve taken very long to get used to so they picked something else. Hope this helps 🤷‍♂️

[@sienas7350]

My name is Siena which is a little town in Italy. I used to hate it vecsuse it was different and no one knew how to say or spell it or what it meant. But know I really like it because when I actually meet people who understand my name or even have the same name it's super cool. Also it's giving me a reason to go to Italy someday.

[@bricksloth6920]

Since I haven't publicly or officially transitioned, I went the keep the initials thing. And since the initials match the names my parents chose as names had I been given the proper equipment at birth, I just picked those. So H J, Herbert Jason (Herbert is a family name). But I go by Sloth.

[@veolu]

I'm a trans guy, recently started my T, and I've been struggling with names. I fell into the andro-name pothole, and shortnames appeal to me most, so I get a lot of questions like 'oh that's short for (something undoubtedly feminine)' I'm intensely self conscious in picking my name, unfortunately the name my mother chose was going to be the same regardless of my gender. It feels weird to be more settled on a middle than a first. I feel like everything is like.. Too edgy for me. I'm glad you ended up with one that worked really well for you.

[@oOyoyoTheFoxOo]

Ive come to a conclusion on my name a few years back and I'm 100% on it, the only problem is- I'm not out to a majority of the people in my life (sadly, i'm not in the position to come out at the moment) and recently someone with my name has started to become integrating into my band of buds. It's very awkward to me seeing as one day I will come out to these people, and I don't want it to seem as if I'm "taking" his name. I know I'm not. But the potential awkwardness of that eventual situation is always in the back of my mind.

[@oceanknives]

choosing my name is SUCH a hassle, and i'm doing it for a mix of gender reasons and not gender reasons. it was really important for me to have an arabic name, as part of my heritage, and there aren't that many gender neutral options but Nour immediately jumped to me. it's a beautiful name and it means light, i loved it instantly. i've been going as nour to most people for over a year and a half now. choosing my middle name is SO much harder though ???? like you said, initials can be very important and i keep hesitating. i liked rain for a while, but i also really like the name keaton, but i'm considering something with a g to have "n.g." as a potential surname. really struggling with the idea of having two middle names, for some reason

[@Charlie.M.Green1905]

My ex helped me choose my name.. we were going through names (Edward, Michael and finally Charlie) but it was really just random convos with someone I trusted completely and Charlie just ended up being the one that stuck. Four years on it’s still the name I’d pick even out of the ones my mum thought of.

[@tertiarysqueeze]

I have felt literally everything you talked about when I was choosing my middle name. I don't even remember how I chose my first name but my middle name took me soooo long - I chose Francis in the end but I still haven't sent the paperwork off because I'm not entirely sure

[@alistaire8648]

I've both liked and disliked my name throughout my life. When I was about 13/14, I realized I didn't want to go by my first name anymore, partly because it is quite a feminine name (and although I've always been fairly certain I identify as female, I hate gender boxes and expectations and shit like that *we are all just people ugh*) and also because I've always felt like my name is really personal to me. I'm one of those lucky people with cool initials, plus my initials make a really awesome name, so I started introducing myself as Jem (my initials). I still use my first name with some people (like my family and official stuff), but most of the time I only let people I'm close to call me by my first name. It's really nice to have a barrier between different people in my life as it gives me control over who gets to know the "real" me. Plus it's a lot safer to not give some people my real (that is, first) name as I've been around some creepy people. Since most of my social media is under my legal name, they won't be able to find me (I've also just told them I don't use it lol stop asking me seriously).

[@lilaxprinxe]

I’m in the process of picking a new middle name rn. So I’m going with Nicholas as my first so I can still use my nickname/chosen names of Nicky and Nic but that’s based on my middle name and my first name is too femme for me to use comfortably. So I have a board with names written on it but most are traditionally masc cause I’m in a masc mood rn but I’m waiting to make any decision till I’ve been through a more femme mood and that side of me can weigh in. My favorite choices right now are Andrew, Cassius, Lee, and Evander but most of those are really masc and having two masc names worries me.

[@heyitsgrey9856]

My parents named me after my two great grandmas. Since I did love those women, I didn’t want to get rid of their names per-say, but they also didn’t belong to me. It took a long ass time, but eventually I settled for the masculine version of both of them to honour them. Middle name was harder because no one has ever ever heard of the masculine version of it, and it took me a long time to not just hear a really weird word when I heard it. But I figured that since you never use your middle name, it doesn’t overly matter. I did consider changing my name to sound like Grey Elephant (Elephant would be how Ella and my last name would sound together), but that name was just wrong in every sense other than the comical sense.

[@oliver1616]

So I've been experimenting with my gender online and go by the name King, which obviously isn't gonna last if I end up being transmasc in any way irl. My first name starts with a T and my last name starts with a B, and if I need to pick my name, I'm /not/ gonna keep having my initials stand for tuberculosis

[@RoganShannon13]

I have two middle names too! Welcome to the small two-middle-names club! Cis here, but have been questioning lately if I'm entirely cis. Anyway, my full name is Rogan Michael Thomas Shannon. My initials are RMTS or RMS which sounds like something that they would put in front of a military ship lol. My first name is just something that my parents liked and it happened to work perfectly for me because Rogan is an old Irish name (usually a surname in the US, but common as a first name in Ireland too from my knowledge) and it means red-haired. I was born with sandy red hair, then it changed to blond. Now it's strawberry blond in certain lighting and my beard is russet/auburn red. My first middle name was a really good family friend of my parents and my second name was my great-grandfather's. He passed just before I was born so it was in honor of him. I also asked my parents what name they'd considered for me if I was a girl, and they said Talia. I'd always liked that name growing up, and I had no idea it was something my parents had considered for me!

[@dylannicholas6921]

i was fortunate in the fact that i found a name that i loved and felt comfortable with really quickly. i only ever seriously considered 2 names and both were gender neutral and relating to people i knew and were inspired by. The first was emery which means comfort and was the name of a youtuber i was in to and had learned a lot from. i didn't go with that. i went with dylan because it was the name of a neighbor i felt inspired by, had the same 1st initial as my given name which i felt was important at the time and am grateful for, its popular enough for people to know it but not so popular that everyone is named it, and it means "son of the sea" and in my childhood i was like a fish-would not get out of the ocean. also in greek culture typically a daughter's middle name is that of her father. so my grandmother (who my parents named me after) had the middle name Nicholas. My parents gave me a middle name that was similar to nicholas but was feminine, and i just changed it back.

[@connorjames8298]

Holy shit dude i feel so fucking weird about my name. ive changed it so often. I feel like it doesnt fit every time i change it

[@maxicarus6101]

I chose my name (Max) based on a video game character, but I can't remember which one ??? Which isn't really as bad as you'd think, I ended up really liking the name anyway and a lot of people say it fits me well, so I'm happy with it

[@swatosky]

Hi, I'm french and I ended up on your video after a lot of searching the internet trying to figure myself out. My name is Aurore, my mother named me after the Princess Aurora because it was her favorite disney movie/character and if I had been a boy, she would have called me Alexandre after her best friend. Thanks for sharing your story with us, you really are helpfull for people that may be lost and struggling with themselves :)

[@Bookworm676645]

Hey! I love your videos so much, and just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying what you're doing with your channel lately. Learning a lot!

[@jackisnotabird]

Aw thanks!

[@allwhen]

I chose the name Frankie but also struggled with choosing middle names. It took me awhile but i ended up choosing two names that were meaningful to me and that i was pleased with and so now my initials are FERB, which i also find most pleasing

[@thedaryanshow]

My name is Daryan, I was named after the daughter of the main character in the movie "The Last Boy-scout"

[@superhotninjacat]

Cis female here :) My mom and dad could not agree on a name for me because there were so many criteria for the name: 1) It had to sound the same when pronounced in Danish and German (my mom is Danish, dad is German) 2) It had to have special meaning for at least one of my parents 3) I could not be something I would be bullied about 4) They had to both like it. They had been fighting about my name for months until one day my mom ws reading "House of Spirits" and decided that Clara was a beautiful name. She asked my dad what he thought about it and he loved it because it was the name of his dead mother. Later they fought about the spelling (my name is spelled Klara) but my mom gave in to my father because she chose my middle name and my last name is the same as hers. Klara Is a great name. It is common enough in most countries and people don't really struggle with pronunciation when I travel. That is something that is very important to think about if you are from a non-English speaking country ( my mom has a ridiculous Danish name that does not work anywhere but Denmark).

[@macemccauley4114]

I know this video is two years old, but the way I chose my middle name is neat to me. My initials before were ELK but I’m getting married and they will be ELM. I thought of keeping the EL so that I could have initials that spell one thing and have it change to a different thing so I was looking up neutral/masculine names that started with L. I saw Lennox and was drawn to it and then was immediately sold when I found out it meant “of the elm tree.” It was some sort of a sign that I just could NOT pass up. Though, I do regret not changing my first name to Mace, but MISTAKES WERE MADE, OKAY?

[@isaac4421]

Hey! Thanks for the awesome two-part video! It definitely helped because I'm ftm and in the process of finding a name for myself. I've changed my name five times, from Reese (sounds like my birthname), Leo (zodiac sign and just sounded cool), Isaac (friends thought it suited me), Arlo (just thought it sounded interesting really and thought it fit me) and possibly Oliver, as it's always been a name I liked and currently feel like it suits me well. But I just never can stay comfortable with one. My birthname, frankly makes me feel awful and I know what my mom would have named me if I was born biologically male- she named my younger brother that. I just feel like I'll never feel comfortable with a name I pick for myself. Funny enough, I do have a middle name picked out- Duncan, after the character from A Series Of Unfortunate Events, as those are books I absolutely love and they have had my heart since I was in elementary school. So, really, I have no idea what name to call my own nowadays. Hopefully, one day I will. Thanks for the amazing content Jackson!

[@peterr.8995]

The name that I went with is Finnley which is Irish and a guy's name but people would sometimes think it was just an edgy girl's name so I made it my middle name and my first Peter so it worked out when in class the first thing people heard was Peter and they didn't really question the validity of Finnley 😂

[@cookiemonster0l0]

One of my middle names is Nicole, which comes from a series of Renault Clio adverts from the 90's. For some reason my parents were totally fine getting inspiration from a random French character selling cars. I've actually met another Nicole who has the name for the same reason!

[@andibartley1098]

My middle name is Rose. My mother knew that I was a girl, and she decided to give me the name Mikayla Rose, and my younger sister, the middle name Lily. I think she just had a thing for flowers. I don't hate my name in anyway, but I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to be named something less feminine, as I'm not girly in anyway. Something that reflected me as a person, and not the person I would grow into

[@Anonima-bh7ve]

I'm not out to a lot of people yet and one of my friend wants me to choose a name fast so it's easier to gender me correctly when talking to me and other people (She's very social and she likes to make her friends meet each other by telling each other's names), but I am so afraid of choosing a name and all the ideas I have are of people i already know and feel like it would cause confusion or English names, which would sound weird in a non english speaking country.

[@shewhotalksalot]

hey Jackson! we met at the 2015 Yule Ball, but my name is Miranda and it's because the tempest is my mom's favorite Shakespeare play! I love my name, even to the extent of not having many nicknames because I just want to be called Miranda. loved the video!!

[@KyPaMac]

My first and middle initials are KP, and I like these initials but both names are unambiguously male, which is Not My Fave. This week I started going by Kay, which makes me feel good. I'd really like my middle name to be Paz (Spanish for "peace"), but then my name (Kay Paz) would sound like K-Pax, the Kevin Spacey movie, which is also Not Great? I'm considering going with Pascal instead, for like three or four different very nerdy reasons.

[@timothydean3617]

I chose my first name to match the popularity, more or less, of my birth name. Timothy has the same history of use in the US as my birth name (as seen on the SSA website), and it had the same popularity ranking the year I was born. I didn't like the names my parents had been thinking of for me, and I couldn't find anything I liked that fit into the family naming "tradition", either. Name theme, at least, since it had only been used for my and my parent's generation. In any case. Felix was just a name I liked independently, partly for it's meaning and partly for the fact that it's never been an incredibly common name.

[@alecw1207]

When choosing my name it was important to me to keep my first name as it was passed down from my mother, is unique, and gender neutral. But growing up I NEVER went by my first name so I had to focus on what to change my middle name. It was important to me to keep the same initial. I also wanted my mother to help me pick my name, but she was not having it and was not a person that I felt comfortable talking with at the time. I went through a lot of names but went with Alec as it was close to my birth name but also not THAT close. When I told my mother she was less than thrilled.... But after a few months she told me "You can tell people that I named you after Sir Alec Guinness, the original Obi Wan Kenobi." With Star Wars being her favorite movie serious and her essentially giving me her go ahead with my name it was set. To this day I have not legally changed my name. While I feel obligated to keep my first name, I am not attached to it. But with 3 years of being out on the line, it's about time I change my name legally.

[@reubenbryant]

I didn't give my parents any say when I picked my new name. And I went with something totally different from my birth name. But I'm worried about how to respond to any question asking what made my parents choose my name as it's a question I was asked a lot with my birth name. Once I had a first name, the middle name was easier. It was only afterwards, I discovered the first/middle name combination is the name of a sailor and then several ships.

[@x_SpookyxBakedxBiscuit_x]

Yeah, non binary trans, masc leaning and I still don't know if I'm going to stick with the name I chose. There's been a lot of anxiety around it because I had such a hard time even picking something I would ever feel like fit me. But I'm also just someone who hates really common names for myself (or anything I get to name, pets, ect)

[@arinmoriarty7108]

Both of my names (Arin Cole) are variations on my birth name. Because I was identified using my name (of course) all through growing up, I am kind of attached to it and I felt like picking something that was totally different would feel more like a persona than something that was actually my name. With Arin, I just wanted a gender-neutral spelling of my assigned name. I'm not set on Cole yet, but I do like it. I didn't like my middle name but I was feeling really overwhelmed choosing a new one so my partner suggested just using a shortening of my birth middle name, et voila.

[@clhughes1000]

Great video! I am named for two of my great-grandmothers, both of whom I knew. The funny story comes from my first name, Catherine. The great-grandmother that name is taken from did not die until the summer before high school & lived 10 minutes from us, so I spent a lot of time with her. I had no idea that her first name was Catherine, as we never called her that & it isn't even on her tombstone. However, that's not the funny part. I've seen two official documents with her full name on them: Catherine is spelled differently on each of them, & neither of them is how my name is spelled. I think it's pretty hilarious actually, but it's really cool when I think about it. My name pays homage to a wonderful woman, who was integral in raising 3 generations of my family, while also being totally my own. I have no idea if that was the intention, but it's pretty great!

[@ardinrye4786]

It's awesome finding this now since I just decided on my middle names! I've been wanting to start my name change process for a while especially since I'll be graduating for college in less than a year and so it'd be nice to have that all squared away for job search purposes. But yeah, I ended up going with some names that I've always liked so James Alistair in that order will be my middle names :) The fun part is that it means my initials spell AJAR. It's good to be open

[@nunyabiznez6381]

Someone once told me that a good naming rule of thumb is that one name should be short, another should be long and another should be medium in length. So of course you don't get to choose your last name so lets say your last name is Smith. That is short so then you could go with Bartholomew Richard Smith or Richard Bartholomew Smith. If your last name is Jefferson then you could go with John Randolph Jefferson or Randolph John Jefferson. Another way to go is perfect symmetry where all three are of identical length. One of my relatives was named Patrick Thomas Murphy. So there is a certain cadence to the sequence of names. Or if only two names are desired and the surname is just one syllable the first name could be really long. I like the name Alexander. It is very long, very masculine and has a lot of possibilities for nicknames. Al, Alex, Lex, Xander, Lexi, Alexa are all decent nicknames and notice some fit more than one gender. If I had a son I would use that as either a first or second name. My first name is two syllables long and so is my last name so for me Alexander is the perfect middle name. Plus if my son turned out to be a daughter we could always call her Alexa or Lexi or Allie for short and change Alexander to Alexandra without too much trouble. My first name does not lend itself to a feminine version very well. Oh I forgot, I would tend to want my son to share the same firt name with me. It's a tradition in my family for the last five generations but each generation has a different middle name. That way nobody gets stuck with being a junior. My father told me he didn't want me burdened that way.

[@etc.764]

I think that I might transition when I'm older and I'm already trying to decide which name I will take . Erik is closer to my name at the moment and was my nickname in primary but Tírnann is a traditional Irish name which I really like . I also like the name Thaigh and Jasper but I can't decide .

[@eggbiter]

So I am currently struggling with a first name, but my middle name came easily! There have been two amazing people in my life that were both named Michael, and inspire me greatly! I chose Michael as my middle name. I plan on letting my mother chose my first.

[@greentea6345]

I'm contemplating changing my middle name because on one hand, it's Sara, literally meaning "Princess" and "Lady", and I want a middle name that sounds pretty neutral. On the other hand, it's my grandma's name and she means a ton to me and my family has the tradition of middle-naming their daughters their grandma's name. So I'm torn.

[@fluffysmolz7418]

i have an indian name, Aradhana, and it's technically a girl's name, but as a white american, not one person has ever assumed my gender based on my name. but since *i* knew it was a girl's name, it made me really insecure; i hated hearing it out loud. but then as i played with other names, i realized i hated hearing *any* of my names out loud. so now i don't really have a name. and because i have a foreign name in america, everyone pronounces it wrong. and i just stopped correcting them. so now i basically respond to anything starting with A. like you could probably call me artichoke and i'd respond lmao

[@junkmail2505]

i'm cis and in fifth grade i switched to my middle name because i didn't like my first name, but it was still a big hassle because the name wasn't on any of the school's documentation and they wouldn't just take my birth certificate with both names on it as proof which was really annoying

[@jennybrown1002]

My dad really wanted the name Jennifer but my mom wasn't down for it at the time. What convinced my mom is that when my great grandma came to Canada after world war 2 everyone called her Jenny (her name was Janina pronounced "Ya nee nah"). I never really liked my name and wanted something less feminine so I wanted to be called J. I also really liked my middle name Rose for a while but as I've grown up I feel like Jenny works for me. Although fun fact, because my mom was so on the fence about my name for so long, I didn't have a name for six months and was called either baby-no-name or Loblaw by relatives.

[@chikkiboo]

I'm trans and my birth middle name was already androgynous and named after my grandfather so i kept that. my birth first name was super common so i chose a new name that's also super common and that i've always felt fond of (and that is also specifically popular amongst irish-americans which is the culture i'm from). i just can't decide (I haven't filed the court paperwork yet) whether i want to preserve my middle name's original spelling or lengthen it back out to my grandfather's name? I'll either be Michael Lee Lastname or Michael Leroy Lastname. It was important to me to pick a name that was known amongst ppl my own age because I'd personally feel pretty silly if I had a name that was only trendy amongst people who are decades younger than me -- being a 35 year old dude named Ayden wouldn't fit me, and might make it harder to go stealth if I ever decide I want to bc it's a name from the wrong generation and would raise eyebrows

[@leojune4131]

I'm a trans guy currently struggling with my name, and partially because I'm choosing a new last name for myself as well (my dad's a ass). The name I'm currently wanting is Liezel Malan. Liezel is another version of my given middle name, and with the way it's pronounced, it can be shortened to Lee, which I like, and Malan is my mother's maiden name. I haven't decided on a middle name. But I've been going through quite a few names, and I'm terrified that I'll come out, change my name, and then in a few years start to hate my new name. I'm also afraid of coming out with the name Liezel and then wanting to change it to something else, and my family judging me for it. I dunno.

[@macksthetigerchild3417]

I never really thought about choosing a name until my best friend asked me what they should refer to me as after I came out to them. On the spot, I just shortened my birth name and told them to call me "Macks." I spelled it that way because the name itself is very common and I didn't like that, so I made an accommodation to fix the issue. So now my full name is Macksimillion Liam Topinka and I absolutely love it and cannot wait to legally change it. I chose Liam because I wanted my initials to stay the same and because it's what my mom initially wanted my brother's middle name to be. Plus, Macks Liam really rolls off the tongue.

[@DarkxStars]

All of my cousins on my moms side have 4 or five names and they usually go by the third name. I didn't know this until i was 15 and was shocked that my cousin apollo is actually shane but NO one calls him that and then my mom told me the rest of my cousins first names and I'm still mind fucked to this day (its been 5 years)

[@Sapphireia]

In Sweden, name order has nothing to do with which name you go by (not even legally). So that seems completely normal to me. :)

[@ringstadschauffler1523]

One of the things I've regretted is going with a name that starts with J. My birth name starts with H, and H feels like my letter, but I really like my chosen name (Jules), even if J doesn't feel as personal of an initial. I've considered Henry, because that was a name my mom was considering and it starts with H, but it's a little too masculine for me. Also my birth name was super old fashioned and was kind of a "grandma" name, and I kind of liked that in a weird way, but I didn't want to choose an old name and have people ask me questions about it all the time. I'm really lucky my middle name is gender neutral, but it's a last name, and I considered going by it for a while, but I tried it once and the person I told it to was like "no, I want your first name. Your first name. Are you sure that's your first name?" So there goes that idea!

[@ebuckley4960]

My friend name (first and last) make up the initials ET. For my birthday a couple of years ago I took him to universal Orlando. While their everyone going got a key card with one of the parks on it. Guess which card my friend got. ET

[@cosmicren2937]

Because I was named after two dead relatives, I felt like I had to keep my initials, and because I didn't want the pressure of picking a new name, I let my parents rename me (I also thought it would ease the transition process, which it did a significant amount). Some days part of me regrets it, because they chose a pretty gender neutral first name (Remy), but it also does make me feel better that I can say "my parents named me this" because even though naming yourself feels like a right of passage for some trans people, it makes me feel a bit more "normal" that my parents named me, like I've always had this name.

[@randomgirl1526]

My parents were kinda playing with Helen, but they didn't want it as a first name. Then they encountered a little girl on a birthday party who was named Greta and they kinda clicked with the name. My sister also has a "retro" name, it wasn't even cool back then or anything but I really like my name!

[@julesparis8329]

I wasn’t the one who originally came up with my first and middle names, Jules Paris. My best friend wanted to come up with nicknames for us to call each other, and she came up with the name Jules. Sure it came from my birthname, but it just sort of stuck with me. I went by Jules in high school for three years, and started going by it around my family. When I figured out I was trans, the first thing I did was looked up the name Jules to see if it was a masculine name, and because the first result that came up was saying that Jules was the French form of Julius, I decided to go with it. Now my middle name: Paris. When I came out as trans to my dad and I told him I was going to change my full name, he said he was fine with it, but his only request was I picked a Shakespearean middle name. His reasoning for it was because he wanted all of his kids to have a Shakespearean name somewhere in their name. And I was perfectly okay with this. So me, my dad, and my stepmom pulled out a book with all of Shakespeare’s characters, and we came across the character Paris. Paris was a man in Romeo and Juliet, and I really liked the idea of my middle name being Paris. So that’s what I went with. I am currently in the process of getting my name legally changed to Jules Paris. My court date is May 8th if this year, and I’m so excited about it.

[@row2matow557]

Jules Paris okay that is an AWESOME story! My birth name would also have Jules stem from it, and I think it’s so cool how your dad wanted you to have a Shakespearean middle name (I love Shakespeare!). I hope your hearing went well!

[@shyywolff]

Hey Jackson im relating to your videos (this one and part one) sooo much. I've fallen out with my parents because of my name and everything lately. I've been out publicly for 3 years and I chose Kai as it was close to my birth name but l really love the name Killian and like you I was considering having 2 middle names one matching my grandads name and then the other being Kai as it's meaningful to my journey and my enitials would be almost the same as my birth name, but no matter what Ido I get criticized by my family for wanting to change it as I was named after my mum. She would have called me David but my younger brother is now David and no other male name was in her head. I don't know what to do.

[@ifirun]

My parents named me Lia. exact same pronounaction as Leah. I guess they liked the way it sounded and my dad worked with someone who spelled it Lia. At first they both had other names in mind, but out of those I like my actual name best. I've found the mispronouncations interesting, Leia, lie-uh, I get lisa a lot. I wanted to change it when I was younger, someone where I could have a cool nickname (hard shorten a 3 letter name) but honestly I grown to like it more as I've aged, though I don't ever insist anyone try to spell it my way on food/coffee orders.

[@karatheythemharkins2393]

@jackson i did the usual thing of the same initials, my first name was easy since it was the name of a crush in college and i kept my last name. My middle name was harder because after guessing what my parents might have used for a female name it both rymed with my sisters name and my new first name so it was eventually Michelle. Once i was nonbinary i used a word from a nongendered language (Finnish) 😊too as a nickname so it was Sisu/Kara before my my middle name.

[@thomasfieschi-rose3705]

Funnily enough, I actually have FIVE names (two middle, two last). Fieschi is apparently reallllly hard to pronounce because of the odd syllabic combinations and people end up pronouncing it Fi-esch-i, when it's actually Fi-esk-i (Fi-esky). It's really weird but I kinda like it. I think r's are the best initial to have in your name (think J.RR Tolkien and J.K.R). Not sure why but it makes the wording seem more complete.

[@undisclosedmeatwallet487]

I haven't legally changed my name, as I'm still not completely out to everyone in my family. But I chose to go from Madison Darby, to Roan Kenkade purely because years ago I asked my mom what she would've named me if I was born a boy. And it stuck with me. I had a fascination with that name and would constantly say "I wish my name was Roan and not Madison. ". It's not a common name either and I resonate with it more

[@6xlord907]

it's weird how fast it was for me. i came out to a friend and about an hour after admitting to myself finally that i am trans and i need to do something about it, i told her i liked sasha as a name. like instant. every sasha i've met in my life has been pretty cool, so there's that. then there's sasha velour who is a huge inspiration.. sasha is also on the top 20 list of favorite boy names in my birth year. like, just a lot of things that fit. oh and i am going with sascha with a c, because that's the german spelling and goes better with my verrry german last name.. so.. yeah.. i kiiiind of regret not thinking on it more because i already came out to everyone with that name and it would be awkward to change it back. as for middle names, i am very tempted to go for something more out there because i CAN... i love the idea of tyrrannosaurus XDD i'll probably go with loki i think. even though it doesn't have great flow or initials altogether and just syllable wise.. sascha loki zimmermann is kinda... well, very weird. but there aren't any cool initials with s...z anyway :/ oh well... i did think about taking sebastian as my middle name, that would be the one my parents would have given me. very undecided still.. oh well.. but sascha is so well established already, i think i am stuck with it which is honestly fine, because cis people are stuck with their birth names too in a way so it's just my reality now kinda.. and i am comfortable with it. it's like a name i'd be given if i had been born male, so yeah... weird process

[@reconnert4498]

I just recently came out as male and changed my name to Conner, because it's the same initial as my birth name and I have to sign my initials a lot at my job so it was just easier that way, plus I really like conner and keeping the initials feels like, for me personally, as if I'm just improving upon what was already there. I was going to change my middle name to Nicolas, since it was Nicole, but since watching this I might do something fun or silly like Danger, thank you for the idea! Maybe I'll make it Nut so I can still use CNT

[@mckenzieduff350]

My name is my grandma's maiden name and I love it for being something that matters a lot to my mom, but I'm mostly called Kenzie or Mack (which is kind of my favorite). And my middle name Diana is after my dad's sister that I never met... so family names all around!

[@theocanavan651]

Oh! I always love it when people ask about my name bc I love it and like to brag about it. To get my name, I did the stereotypical trans thingy where you make a list off a baby name website. So I did that, and eventually got it narrowed down to two names. Out of the 4 names (2 first and 2 middle) I really liked three of them. That’s when my partner had the brilliant idea to combine them into a hyphenated middle name. Which, thinking now, I might just make my second middle name my last name eventually. Anyway! My name is Theo Rhydian Foster, nice to meet y’all ❤️

[@TheoVisage]

I went as Ezra for a while when I identified as nonbinary because it's gender neutral but felt more masculine. However, once I realized I was trans, I debated for a long time between Daniel and Vance, because I felt like Vance fit me better (and it had no religious connection) but I had a really cool cousin named Daniel and as a person who likes nicknames, Daniel had Danny, Dan, etc. Eventually I just decided to go with Vance, but I made Daniel my middle name! I feel like it worked out better anyways because I feel like first names tend to be something that people choose because they like them, while middle names tend to honor someone in the family. Regardless, I'm happy with Vance and I'm hoping my parents will like it too (if things go well when I come out *fingers crossed*).

[@jailyns.5394]

Actually funny for me I went back to the baby name book and looked up popular names now. I have kids so I had some time to dive into the books to pick out names for out kids. One of the girls' names we chose was willow I ran across it in the name book. I love the name and it just felt right. You will know your name when it feels right to you. I don't have any other way to explain it. You'll know it when you feel it.

[@DeliveryMcGee]

Cis boy here, my parents decided on Jason early in the pregnancy, then when I was born and my father held me for the first time, he said "He doesn't look like a Jason, let's call him Justin instead." Both were popular at the time. My middle name is my maternal grandfather's first name. I named my lil' brother, 7 years my junior, after a friend I had at the time, and also it was trendy again so our parents went with it. His middle name was picked out of the phone book because it rhymed with my middle name. (PM me if you want more explanation, Jack, I'm not posting our full names in a public comment for obvious reasons.) One of my nephews was almost named Jackson, but, same as infant me, his parents chose another name upon seeing him.

[@captaincactusman]

I'm at the point where I don't really know if I'm trans or not. However I do still dislike my name (much to my parents' dismay) and go by Dom instead. It's just from an online name I had a long time ago. If I do come to identify as a guy I'm thinking about my middle name being Dennis, after my grandfather who I've always thought was cool. You actually put some thought into your other names which I think is cool. I didn't really put much thought into Dom, it's just what I had been called, but eh I still like it.

[@1hatontopofmyhead]

my middle name WAS Kate, because my parents knew they wanted a daughter named Kathrine but wanted to surprise our family with the name. my cousin ended up being born less than a month before me, and my aunt and uncle had the same idea of surprising the extended family with the name. they ALSO had the same idea as my parents in another way, whereas to name her Katie. bummer. but now I've been stuck between between Kurtis as a middle name (to keep my initials) and Chris, (someone who really impacted my life when I was younger)

[@kanielpatricksaint3458]

Jackson E.T. Bird..... JET Bird.