So I'm AFAB and have been questioning my gender. I'm not really sure about anything, I could just be really masculine-leaning and cis, but bottom line is I don't like my name that much. It's very feminine and it is becoming increasingly uncomfortable to use it. I'm considering changing it legally in the future to something more masculine/gender neutral. I may ask people to call me by this new name soon too but I'm not sure how to go about it. Definitely wouldn't discuss this with my family, and I'd prefer not to ask teachers to call me the new name, but maybe my classmates. They're all really accepting and I'm sure they'd be great about it, but I'm not sure how that would work in reality if I'm only having them call me it, and not teachers, etc. I'm worried it would cause problems or confusion. Does anybody have experience or tips? Thanks.
Well that's exactly what I did. I started off by asking my friends and then three weeks ago I came out to all my classmates. They call me Ollie, the teachers call me olivia. No one is confused and if they are I can say it's a nickname; that's what I've been doing since January when my friends started calling me Seth (at my request).
If that's what you want, settle for nothing less. I'm not all that big on caring about it. I know I should be but I just don't care. I figure there's always going to be that person who uses my old name just to stab at me a little bit so I figure all I can hope for is that everyone tries their best and so be it. I can always NOT ANSWER to my old name and then such a mistake gets corrected more easily.
As a teacher myself and one who understands your struggle, but in reverse, I would want you to feel comfortable enough to ask to be called by whatever name you want to be called.
