I've always hated my name that my parents gave me at birth. So up until recently when I found out I was trans I realized I wanted to give myself a different name. I always loved the name Nicholas and thought Nick could be a gender-nuteral nickname (Nickie/Nick etc) and well here's the problem. I like being called Nick here but I dont have the courage to tell my family about my name or what I want to be called. I've told my friends online and my mom about myself being trans but I can't seem to tell them about what I wan't to be called. My name assigned at birth is Julia. That sounds wrong even typing it. It's not me. Its not in any way gender nuteral. I just want to feel right about this, but my mom, someone whose raised me with the name Julia - I just want to make sure she'll love me even as Nick... Then. What about my grandparents? What if they hear me call myself Nick but they reject me? My sister and her fiance wont care. My grandparents probably would freak out, though so my mom would have to call me Julia when around my grandparents and uncle (he's extremely homophobic/transphobic, etc) and that would just tear me apart on the inside. I just want to be called Nick sooner rather than later because I think it'll help calm me down. Advice?
Maybe you could ask a few of your friends to call you Nick for now. Or maybe you could have your family call you Nickie for now, then shorten it to Nick later so that you can sort of transition from your birth name to the name you want to be called.
