I haven't been around much so I'm a little late to this thread, but I didn't choose my name - it chose me. When I first came out and cut off all my hair and looked in the mirror, my reaction was basically "oh, hello Daniel - so that's who you are and where you have been hiding!" and I just knew that was my name. It wasn't till afterwards that I remembered the connection with the story of Daniel in the lion's den (which is kind of a very apt metaphor for my life), and also the character of Daniel in Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" - Daniel is the manifestation of the Dream (which is also very appropriate for my situation as a transguy). And Daniel Jackson is one of my favourite SG-1 characters, quite a lot like me personality-wise (although my son would argue that and say I am more like Jack O'Neill :D) Oh yeah, and of course there's Daniel Johns from Silverchair (I have liked Silverchair's music since they were little 14 year olds LOL, now I feel old!)

My middle name, Ciaran, was another one that chose me - I had to fill out some paperwork for something and it asked for a middle name. At that point I hadn't chosen one (I knew I wanted one though, because both my brothers were given middle names and in girl mode I didn't get one, and I was pretty ticked off about it lol). So when I went to write my name on the forms, I just wrote something down and saw that I had put Ciaran, and liked it And considering that it means "little dark one" or refers to having black hair, I thought it was kind of apt because I'm definitely the black sheep in my "family"

As for my surname, I changed it completely because I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the people who call themselves "family" - that's why I kept my married name for years even though I was separated, and continued to use it even after I was divorced - I would rather have that than the name I was given at birth because the animosity is so huge. Being a pagan, a Druid and a Flamekeeper (servant of Brighid), and having on numerous occasions said that I don't have a mother and that Brighid is my mother, what other surname could I choose but MacBride ("son of Brighid")? I used to go by the feminine version (niBride) for a while in girl mode, so it was kind of a natural choice.

I don't know what it is with people who expect me to choose a name that sounded like my birth name - why the HELL would I want anything that even remotely reminded me of HER name? But apparently they do - the number of people who knew my girl name and when they hear my name now, say "oh, it's nothing LIKE your girl name, I thought you would have picked Tony" or similar comments makes me go "huh?"