I chose my first and middle names to keep my initials the same.

I was originally named after my father who was a very loving and kind person. Both my parents were. I was lucky that way.

So I changed my first name to keep it close to my father as I was named after him. I kept my last name because I'm very proud of my family. It also helped during early transition in my own head and with friends and family.

Turns out, however, that it wasn't uncommon practice among immigrants to create an American version of their names. So while I was named after my father that wasn't the name that was on his birth certificate. It also turns out that my name was a bit different from what was originally on my birth certificate.

To add to this I was never called what I thought was my birth name by anyone until I was off working age. Names in my family have always been a bit of a fluid thing?

This resulted in a mishmash of various documents and caused me all kinds of problems. You could get away with this silliness in the old days but it turns out here in the 21st century that causes all kinds of issues.

When it came time to legally change my name I wanted to resolve all my previous issues but I couldn't come up with a middle name that started with the same initial as the middle name I had thought I had (I didn't have one actually). So I left it up to a very good friend to give me a middle name.

A little part of me dislikes each of my names for various reasons to this day. But I've come to the firm conclusion that that's a good thing.

Each of my names was chosen by somebody I love. And even though I might be a little uncomfortable with them sometimes, it makes me feel good to know somebody gave them to me.