"What's in a name? That
which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii,
1-2)
So, yeah as promised, last month this issue is going to be a
fairly easy one. This for me is good as I have my hands full with other tasks
just check out my personal blog, Brittany’s Desk, for that load. So this month’s
issue is going to cover how one goes about a name change, while it may sound as
easy as picking a name out of a hat it surprisingly is a bit more difficult than
that and can be downright difficult depending on where you live based on the
laws at hand.
The process is mostly personal in choosing a name but the
steps afterwards will require assistance from medical professions, legal
professionals and sometimes in even extreme cases civic intervention. Now this
is odd for something that is so common in these days of credit fraud that one
can jump from one personality to another. And if you want to have a legal
traffic mess trailing behind you then yes it is easy.
The first step is the one that is the most personal.
Choosing your new name! Now there are many ways to go about this choice and it
varies from person to person. But ultimately it comes down to what name one
would prefer to go by in their life. In High school I was a bit of a careless
wiseass in my time. I had long learned the trick to schooling was to act stupid
on things at the start of the school term and appear progressively to improve
over time. Now this only worked in the academic lessons as my low grades in Phys
Ed showed when I couldn’t pull off one damn chin up. (Still can’t)No instead I
actually spent time in some classes doing the New York Times Crossword. In one
such case in my sophomore year of High School I had a History teacher that
asked us to write a nickname at the start of the first day of school I wrote
the name Don after having just watched Godfather. So for the whole year the
teacher struggled with it and I honestly expected not to have to deal with the
issue again, till the next semester where I had another class with the same
teacher and this time I asked her to refer to me by my given name instead
confusing her all the time. Sadly my
mental trick of playing innocently dumb also failed to work on her as it only
works once on the same person. But the utter confusion was something that I
would find I would want to avoid with my future self. And given with my semipublic
nature in college from my convention circuit days and work at trying to be
picked up by studios for work, when I came out with the big issue I knew my
name had to be not too far from the original one most knew me by.
In my time of choosing a name I have met a few other transitioning
people and asked them how they came about their names. Some told me they chose
a name out of the blue with names like Cystall, Manajere and such (yeah I may
have misspelled their names but hey it was 6+ years ago). Others asked their friends
and family for a new name and to my credit I did hold off on suggestions from
people but the number 1 choice from them always was Brianna which was a name I despised.
Given I knew from a previous discussion in my childhood with my mother though I
am sure she long ago had forgotten it that before I came along my parents
wanted a daughter and she wanted to call her daughter Samantha. Which in all
truth was a name I honestly thought of but since only one letter from my given
name of Brian appeared in it and I was known on the net under the handles BTD
on my art work and btdod on the net projects, I knew I had to find a B name fitting
for me. Given this was a hard one as my top choices of my new name where Lina,
Jean, Samantha, Moyria, Faye, Lily, and Ann. None of which were fitting. So
while I could have pulled those names which mostly came from popular culture, I
had to get more creative. So I gathered a list of my top 25 names for myself
that had to have 10 B names and started to weed down every one till I got one
that I literally chose from a web comic series (that no longer exists don’t try
looking if you don’t recall it or else you more likely will just find me, trust
me I tried) In the series the two title characters where mysteriously changed
and had to come up with names for their new persona and again the name Brianna
was suggested to the character Brian. Luckily it was this comics point that
matched my own on the name I didn’t want that turned me onto the name Brittany.
(So those that think it came from Britany Spears or Britany S. Peirce [Glee]
than think again it’s a far more vague reference.) I chose the name in about a
month after coming out to my friends and family and it took almost a year
before I officially announced it publicly which ironically was the same time I
was stepping away from my public time to focus on my personal life and trying
to straighten it out as much as I could cause it was a huge mess back then. So
since that Wintery time in 2007 that I started to go by the name Brittany and
even after about 5 years down the line started job hunting under my new
persona. That being said legally I have done only the very basic thing.
This is where things get more complicated and will require
you many hours in lines and phone calls. In getting things legally done, while
when I started to transition it was pointed out to me that the legal process of
name changing could take several years it came mainly down to personal preference.
For many that can’t stand their former title they do need to look forward to
hours of work in government institutions that they likely need to hire an
attorney to make sure everything gets legally done clean and professionally.
But this is more to the case for a complete name change. When this occurs
things get legally hairy. You have to legally change records with every
government agency and sometimes twice. These things can take years and even
still things still will get messed up. Heck I have been on my own for 14 years
and it’s taken me 13 for my home cities gas bill to send the bill to Brian and
not Bryant. Yeah 13 years for a mistake they made on day one. Given since I
only changed my middle and First name the legal issues that I only face are driver’s
license, and social security. I did have to clear things up with the IRS when I
started searching for work as Brittany but it was a four hour phone call with
them to get that straightened out as in their own words. “We identify a person
based on their last four digits of social security number and last name.” This
indicates no matter what name I went by it was fine with the so long as those
two factors would match up. When I do want to proceed on I can simply sign up
for a legal name change service that many legal companies offer at low rates (as
long as there is no outstanding warrants out there for you). Once legally
changed (takes about ½ a year) you then can proceed to government buildings and
get things changed. BUT HOLD ON.
In some states including my native Virginia, the law on name
changes and what and how you can change your name is different. In my own case
I personally want to get my name legally changed before the next year when my driver’s
license is due to be renewed. What is odd here is while I can’t change the name
right now legally, I can change my gender status provided I have a legal paper
they provide on their site and the signature of one friend and a medical
professional. So this time next year my license may still say Brian on it but
chance are high that it will declare me Female over what sits in my pants. This
is due to litigation in government paperwork which is changing pretty much
nightly. So unless you are or related to the best lawyer in the world it’s
highly likely you may miss a change in the name change legality for transgender
people in the world.
So where does this leave us for setting up our name changing
process. Well it comes down to stages.
Step 1: Choosing a name you want to answer to.
Step 2: Getting things started by listing all legal
paperwork you have that you want or need to change. (Need to change paperwork,
Taxes, Social Security, Voting Register, Billing, School Records and Criminal
Records if any)
Step 3: Getting legal assistance. (I cannot suggest going on
with this alone as it is a difficult thing to wrangle one’s personal paper
trail and make sure every paper is filled out perfectly without legal help)
Step 4: Filling forms and Attending Court cases
Step 5: Finishing touches and living your new life.
Homework:
Okay this month’s exercise is up for all to try and its one
I personally tried. That is to pick your top 25 names that if you could go by.
That you would choose for yourself. Then take those names and share them with
friends seeing which ones they think is more fitting of you.
Next Discussion:
I hope to get things up and going on a web cam by next month
to deliver a special report but don’t hold your breath till then next month
will cover, the one thing many try to avoid in life. Getting in Shape. That’s right
I will be going over transgender physical health and some exercises and tasks
to help with transitioning.
IN THE NEWS:
Pentagon OK’s Manning Treatment.
Pentagon OK’s Manning Treatment.
Okay this somewhat is reflective of last month’s big news in
the transgender world but at the same time this one is more controversial. As
Private Manning is being held in Military court for his (yes I will use birth
ID on a criminal cases folks deal with it or hate me I don’t care.) for being
the chief info leaker in the Wikileaks case years ago. Personally I have issues
with criminal cases of transitioning that I will make a bigger issue of
discussion in a future discussion, but for now here is the laydown from US
news.
