I have a formal name, but most of the time I went by my nickname. Now, I'm in college and my formal name and nickname are very similar to the name of my college. I tried one of my family's suggestions, but that had too much issues and has a obvious gender. So, lately I have been telling people to just call me by the first letter of my name (same letter for formal and nickname). I added a few letters (like D=Dee, J=Jay). I like it a lot. Its gender neutral, short, and easy to spell. Not too different from my nickname. The only issues are that I will have to get my college acquaintances used to it. Then, I'll have to go home and explain to my family that I chose a new "college nickname". All of my family and relatives go by formal and nicknames that announce they are cis-gender. This will get weird looks from them. I guess its not too late to go back to my old "college name". Was this a good call?
Only you can decide whether or not it's worth it to you to have to "re-introduce" yourself to people, but for what it's worth, I think trans-spectrum people often feel more stressed about it than we need to. After all, TONS of people use nicknames or abbreviations of some sort and it's generally accepted that this is well within the norm. Maggie grows up and decides to go by Margaret again. Katherine realizes there are too many other Katies at school and starts going by Kay. BJ realizes his initials are also the initials of something else and goes back to his full name. None of these raise an eyebrow and, after an initial period of people forgetting, it is not a big deal. When changing your name to something that's obviously of a different gender, it can be a very big deal (depending on the acceptance and education of your family/friends, of course), but gender neutral nicknames, especially when based on formal names, don't frequently raise alarms.
I would also add that just because you want to be called something different at college doesn't mean your family can't keep the old nickname. It's perfectly acceptable for you to have multiple names and nicknames.
