Names (a lunch break identity voyage)

If I'd-a been a boy, my mother maintains I would have been named Robin Christopher.

When I go in drag or male-space, that name feels like home.

meowse pointed out the other day that, in his admittedly limited experience, a lot of trans or otherwise genderbent people pick cross-names that are surprisingly ambiguous. I have observed this more among transmen than transwomen, but I definitely have seen some of that. A lot of names that are androgynous, common abbreviations for feminine names, or shortened to a nickname rare enough that it's ambiguous. Alex, Lee, Sol (short for Solomon, but ambiguous through rarity), Chris... Robin...

I've also known Brian, John, and a couple of Jacks, so it's not an all-sweeping trend or anything, but it is a little surprising.

He says if he wanted to switch, he'd go for something like "Jessica" so people wouldn't have to guess. I agree in theory, but then in practice... I was almost born with these names. They feel like mine. When I'm in drag, I don't want to feel like I'm under an assumed name. Jack isn't my name. Robin is. Chris is. But with my cute little heart-shaped face, it doesn't help people cue very well, and that's frustrating.

So it's time again to haul out the Baby Name Wizard and Top 25 70s/80s lists for names popular among boys-but-not-girls in my birth era and the one just after it. (Like most women with my facial shape, I look a decade younger when I cross-dress.) Names I might grow into with some thought:

Justin. Marcus, but not Mark, and not Marc because that's just a bit too limp-wristed. Andrew, but not Andy. Rob, but not Robert (aha! a solution to the Robin ambiguity?). Paul. Maybe James, which I suddenly realize is also my paternal grandfather's name, though he goes by Jim, which I would not. (But my maternal grandfather's name, Karl, is right out, as is Ray, the middle name I inherited from him.)

There's Glenn, of course, which would have the odd double recognition of the fact that men can be referred to by last name more easily than women. I'm thinking of using Glenn Merrell as an aren't-I-clever* masculine pen name. Maybe I should just own that one a little harder.

I'm oddly tempted by Dean, my father's middle name, with that slightly rare 50s flavor. My actual first name was only in the top 1000 (barely) during the 50s. So going for something slightly rare and slightly out of date makes sense, from that perspective.

( Not Me. (Mostly for personal reference, but there's some amusing commentary on why some and not others.) )

The M/M writing book points out that women naming characters tend to go for the fancy and more formal names, while men naming characters tend to go for "Jack". I think I'm willing to own this tendency. I'd rather be a Marcus than a Mark. My parents gave me one of them wacky girl names that no one can spell without guessing, and I'm fond of that name, so that will always be with me.

At this time, members of the peanut gallery are invited to opine, with either general or specific thoughts on identity, personal preferences, distinctive vs. commonness, gender variance in name-choosing behaviors, Leonard Cohen lyrics, or anything else that strikes their fancy.

* For those who don't know me in person, this is a modification of my surname and personal name in reverse order.

8 minutes to midnight

It's coming. It's actually coming, and it actually looks like it won't suck. Whatever they may have done to the plot, we will see the Watchmen. Come March, I will watch Doctor Manhattan play havoc with human history on as large a screen as I can find. I never embed videos. I'm embedding this video. I recommend full-screen.