Naming Practices

Naming practices typically describe a multitude of cultural customs in which expecting parents, or a group of familial members, choose the fore- and middle name(s) for their newest family member. The reasons for which names are selected vary across time, place, and culture, yet gender is the most common influence regardless of nationality, race, and class. Accordingly, naming practices are inspired by cultural notions of gender—even those names chosen because of their androgynous character. Given forenames, just like gender, are presumed to be stable and therefore unchanged throughout a person’s lifetime. The predicament, then, is when one’s gender identity does not match the name given at birth. This entry considers naming practices, the role of names as related to gender identity, and name change processes within a U.S. context.

Names rely on linguistic systems and cultural patterns that themselves are gendered. Factors like name length, number of syllables, spellings, and phonetic pronunciation create patterned gender associations. Name recognition commences because of these cultural cues that facilitate feminine, androgynous, and masculine distinctions and associations. Hence, the unfamiliarity of names is an effect of gendered patterns, which are shaped by race, ethnicity, and nationality.

Forenames and surnames invite a person into personhood, belonging, and recognition. Forenames establish unique notions of an individual, and they also rely on taken-for-granted notions of gender, race, ethnicity, class, religion, and national origin. Such assumptions are problematic when given forenames do not match gender identity. Because forenames are based on the gender binary, being called a name that is gendered female or gendered male can cause discomfort and distress for persons who do not identify with assigned birth sex. Androgynous forenames, however, may not cause discomfort and distress for the same reasons as the names that are based on the gender binary. It depends on whether a person’s gender identity aligns with the name or not and if they experience misgendering because of their given name. Indeed, androgynous names are most often given to people assigned female at birth more than people assigned male. In turn, over time, androgynous names become associated with female people. Thus, names and naming practices among trans people are an important element of social and legal gender transition.

The majority of trans persons want to change their given forename so it better aligns with their gendered sense of self. Nicknames often emerge first as individuals try them on, and over time, these transform into new names based on sense of fit. For more permanent name changes, trans people take multiple approaches. For some, renaming practices expand across significant time periods, whereas for others, name selection happens more quickly. Some trans people include intimate partners, parents, and significant family members in their renaming practices. Such inclusion both honors parents’ initial authority in naming decisions but also facilitates relationship maintenance between parent(s) and (adult) child. Also true, [Page 560]however, is that parents can be resistant to name changes, since they are the originators of a person’s initial name(s). Ultimately, family naming traditions, trends, aesthetics, cultural tradition, and religious belief systems are part and parcel of renaming choices among trans people.

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