Name you go by and why?

[Postmodern Macro]

My birth name is Jessica and I'm okay with that even though it's quite gendered, but I prefer Jessie or Jess. Jess is my favorite because it's gender neutral, it feels most right to me, and because people often call me it affectionately even w/o me asking

I dunno, Jessie can be gender-neutral too. I've known girls AND boys named Jessie. (Although to be fair, the boys spelled it Jesse.)

Oh yeah, I know Jessie is gender neutral too, I just prefer Jess for the other 2 reasons lol

Jess is a cute name. :3

[PyroPyroPyro]

With family and "formal" things I go by my birth name, or a shortened nickname; "Nick". However, I have about 6 guy friends named "Nick" so around friends I go as "Zeph".

[xRinxxx]

I have a verryyyy feminine first name..So I go by my middle name, Rin, which is a good either-or name. I was lucky enough to be born with a name that I can legally go by and not have to change it, or make one up. I love my name to bits ^_^..even if I want to stab my first name into oblivion >_>..I'll probably just switch them, since I won't completely get my first name removed, my mommy gave me both names after all~

[Jonathan]

Did you find yourself an androgynous/genderqueer or opposite gendered name, or do you just go with yours? And why? ^^

as a male TV I have a femme name (of course): Jennifer
which is a sort of phonetic version of my male name: Jonathan

mostly on trans (etc) forums I post as Jen, in order to place myself alongside (if not exactly within) the MTF community
but otherwise I just use Jonathan (or Jon), which is how I've signed up here

[Ravin]

Until spelled my given name is gender neutral so at most I might change one letter of it someday.

My SCA name, which most friends call me, though, is feminine. I've thought about changing it to a masculine one, but haven't as yet.

[RilianXI]

I go by the name my parents gave me. I like my name more than I hate the gender associated with it. I've been thinking about what other name I could go by, though. I thought, maybe a form of my last name. I thought, maybe the boy name my parents had picked out for me. They hadn't agreed on one. My dad wanted Kaslow Wayne, my mom hadn't picked any. I don't think I would ever want to go by Kaslow. I hate the name Wayne.

[MonochromeShine]

I'm working on a name transition. Eventually I'll be going by Fritz Sasha. I picked up Fritz because one of my friends loves nicknames, and after a while she ended up as Ludwig. Because she loves dragging people into things after her, she started calling me Fritz. So it's a name that's got a lot of good memories attached to it and I like how it sounds.I grabbed Sasha off of someone I knew for a character and ended up really wanting it for myself. So there's two Sashas: Character!Sasha and Me!Sasha.

[rainofsparks]

my name is Bethany, but I've started to go by Beth lately. That's made me realize that people will adapt to change eventually, and so now I'm trying to pick between Briar and London- the first is like a nod to my father, Brian, but the second is just plain sexy, and I love it.

[Edge]

The name I was given at birth is Robyn and I go by that. I'm not sure I like it anymore though. It pisses me off that almost everyone thinks is a girl's name. Robyn (yes, that spelling) is a unisex name and I can prove it. However, I hate the fact that I know that, if I don't prove it, almost everyone thinks it's a girl's name.
I'm considering going by Avery or another unisex name or maybe a boy's name like Jacob. But I bet if I pick a name, I'll just want to change it again eventually or it might turn out to have the exact same problem as the name Robyn.

[stupidIvan]

I let everyone call me by my birth name, Paloma. Which I hate. But it sounds normal opposed to what I actually like to be called, which is Ivan.

I'm thinking about trying to strike a bargain with the rest of the world and try going by "Pim", but it doesn't feel right.

[Harlequin]

My birth name is Bianca, which is, I admit a pretty name for a girl. The trouble is, I'm not a girl.

I picked Rhys a couple of months ago, because (as a linguistics geek) I love the Welsh language and its culture, because synesthetically the name Rhys matches my hair color (I know, odd), and because it's short and easy to acclimate to. I feel like perhaps it isn't the perfect name (I gravitate towards more old-fashioned names beginning with letters like R, M, and S; I considered Romulus/Rom for a while but it just sounded too weird...) but I really can't find any name that's perfect, and Rhys is good enough for now. Also, now that I've told most of my friends to call me that, I feel shy about telling them to call me something else if I find a name I absolutely love.

I combed through baby name sites for a while, but it took too long for impatient little me. Now, though, that I'm learning more about myself, I feel like I'm just finding halfway points, like I'm naming aspects of myself rather than the real me, whoever that is. Bianca is the most feminine, properly religious (like my parents tell me I ought to be), and Rhys is shy, nerdy but with a sense of humor, vaguely male. Rhys is closer to the real me, but I don't know, it doesn't fit like a glove. I'm getting used to responding to it, though!

[Caspar]

It's been a while since I started to change my name and have tried making it sound normal to me.

I actually wanted to be called dominic, but then I felt weird cause that was one of my brother's best friend's names, and it's also pretty masculine, I feel, as it comes from dominus=man.

I kinda ended up somehow with Caspar, which hasn't been in vogue since probably the 16th century or so

One reason is because it's male and therefore not female, the other because it's unusual and therefore strange.

But I am having trouble forgetting about my real name (Susan), which is so damned common and boring.

What I now tend to do though is get confused whatever people call me:
When they say "Caspar", I sort of say "what?who? Oh yeah that's me, of course..."
When they say "Susan", I sort of say..."Who? Oh, you mean me....right..."

I guess I don't really like being called a name, especially cause I can't think of a neutral one....Even when one has a neutral sounding name, people are always able to place a gender-value on it...

[shermillerney]

As I'm only out to a few people, most of the world calls me Millie, which is my birth name. But those friends that do know I'm androgynous call me either Millie or October, which generally gets shortened to Toby. I'd ask them to call me October all the time, but since I get a mixture of the two anyway, and they're bound to accidentally say Millie instead, I asked them to call me either.

The reason I chose October is because I once read it somewhere, used as a male name, and it just stuck with me. There are loads of names I like, some I stop liking after a while, but October has always been a favourite of mine, so when I wanted to choose a male name for myself, October seemed the obvious choice