answers&questions

the concept of “name theory” has been something i’ve talked to a few people about and i just want to paste the response on this page since it fits the theme of a q&a page:

my theory around names is they are sort of just completely made up concept and while most people think they only get one name (well one split into first and last, maybe “middle”), you really can have as many names as you want and also change them at will. and at any point, or depending on what people you’re around. this happens naturally with many people but is kind of relevant to trans people because they usually have to go thru a phase of name changing since the previous name will no longer make sense given the person. the trap is thinking you have to pick one and be there forever, but really you can pick muliple, at any time, and kill off names at any point. so my name in most places is “clover” (online and irl), but for those close ish to me i have a more special name to represent the closeness. my mom, boss, and government know me as “chloe” since that’s what i came out with but since walked it back a little. like, you can just … do this? it’s not even exclusive to trans or even lgbt stuff; for example my coworker goes by his given “middle” name instead of his perfectly normal first name. one of my friends from high school went by a variation of their last name. and one of my best friends from my hometown uses a completely different name than their given name. and you can spot an infinite number of examples of this the more you look, but i don’t really ever see anyone acknowledging this phenomenon.

then there are also nicknames which you can think of as names but to me there sort of a subset to what a name is. like i go by clo or chlorine or whatever but those arent really my names. not that these cant be names it’s just the way i view them in relation to myself.