Hello all! I finally made an account after surfing the boards for a long time. The reason I’m here is due to the fact that I am changing my name as an adult, I have disliked my actual name for a long time and now realize I’m at the point where it truly just isn’t who I am anymore.
Biggest question to those who have done the same thing (or maybe have name-indecisiveness with baby names) - how did you ever decide? I keep going from this name to that name… “Well, how’s this sound” etc, it’s never ending. I do enjoy it a bit I suppose, but how do I find the right one? How did you? I’ve done the writing them out thing, using it in a conversation, asked family/friends to use it in a conversation.
The names I am interested in lean more toward gender neutral (even some boy names as girl names) as my current name is very girly, very cutesy. Any advice is appreciated.
Can’t speak from personal experience, but several friends I’ve have who’ve changed their names have tried them out for a period of time before actually make any legal changes - so they’ve picked one they think would work best, then have gone by it for several months before making changes or adjustments. Not sure how helpful that it, but trying them out for longer periods of time than just in some conversations has helped make their minds up?
I have no personal experience in changing my name, but in baby naming I can never truly narrow it down to one, I always have several names that I truly love equally and in the end, I just have to pick one. Knowing I love them all, I’m always a little sad over the ones I didn’t use, but I try to focus on the reasons I love the one I chose!
I’m not sure my advice will be helpful… for years I promised I’d change my name but as I became an adult, I decided not to go through with it. No name I considered felt like me as much as my birth name did. I tried out several names (Aurora, [name_f]Annabel[/name_f], [name_f]Lily[/name_f], or [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f] probably come closest - I am the opposite, I share a name with my uncle’s brother and always hated not having a fully feminine name), and even liked how some of them fit when I tried them on (I worked in a chain restaurant in my early adulthood so had the opportunity to make many nametags with the names I was trying out, and get live reactions to how it felt like to wear each one…).
I’ve eventually come to the decision that I will keep my first name, I’ve found some ties to it that I really love (I love the meaning especially, but I also feel a close tie to the story of [name_m]George[/name_m] Muller and his [name_f]Ashley[/name_f] Downs orphanage, and admire the faith he had to take care of the children there!), and if I ever marry, I will probably change my middles, since that’s my least favorite part of my name. If I marry, I will probably change my surname, so I figure it’s as good a time as any to change my middles too.
I think the most important part is to figure out what works for you… and to give yourself grace to make the decision. It’s not an easy process, and harder than you think when you decide to go for it! Good luck making your decision!
