Regrets from LONG ago

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So when I was 7, I didn't know what trans meant but I knew that George from Famous Five was a girl who wanted to be a boy so decided to change her name to George and dress like a boy & be treated like a boy & act like a boy.

I knew that was what I wanted for myself.

So I went through the alphabet looking for a name because unlike George, I hadn't been gifted one with an easy to nickname into a boy kind of name. I chose one and used it non stop. Between when I was 7 and when I was 11. Wouldn't answer to anything else.

I find out years later when I'm 12 that that name has negative connotations. So I go by a nickname of it which doesn't. If I was to legally transition? It would be my name on the form though. Cos I don't believe in Christening a baby Ben rather than Benjamin or transitioning to be called Liz rather than Elizabeth. Those are just nicknames! Use real names instead then pick out nicknames separately...

Anyway this only comes up when talking to trans friendly people who know those connotations, know they're bad ones and have the same name/nickname. Like a bonding thing.

I'm talking to a lad like that on Twitter and now he's not responding cos I told him that whole story. He's probably thinking 'what a traitor' or 'ugh I had no idea he was like that' or 'who'd pick that name out?!' etc. Or 'what on earth do you say to that?!'

I gaffe big time.

Gaffed even picking the name out.

Gaffed telling the story.

Gaffed not knowing everything to start with.

Gaffed talking to him after midnight.

Ugh.

I just wish I had known history back then because I guarantee that if my name was Michael I wouldn't be having this conversation lol...

I'm also of the opinion that if you're trans and come out then you're stuck with your first name choice. Anything else is just as silly as cis people who decide to change their name every 5 minutes. You can use nicknames but you can't use a whole new name. Wouldn't sit right with me to do that, would feel dishonest.

Between 14-31, I just used birth name. Cos I thought trans wasn't a thing for afab people. I hadn't had the representation so I tried to be a woman and failed - couldn't be both a woman and happy.

Forgot this was a Yankee Doodle, Southern English site...

Thing is only I have to like me.

Sod him.

My name is Donald for short.....though it isn’t actually Donald.

There are people named Liz whose birth name was Liz.

If you had my politics would you feel bad about being called something similar to Donald? I sense you're fairly left of centre anyway. Do you feel like Donald Trump ruined the name Donnie/Don etc?

I don't like the idea that one person can ruin a name for everyone else.

But the fact is they kind of can.

It's almost luck of the draw too. I can think of as many 'bad' (extreme/undisputably bad so either apolitical examples: serial killers or rapists/child molestors etc or actual Nazis) names as I can do people with 'normal' names that did similar evil stuff.

Dad wasn't around, I knew nothing about history. I picked the name cos it was a name I'd heard of and around the end of the alphabet, that's it.

There are too many Donalds (and Dons) for this name to be “ruined.”

And Trump is not as infamous a figure as a man named Adolf.