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The original was posted on /r/truscum by /u/Lonely_Step_3568 on 2023-11-04 16:38:24.

Lots of talk lately about people picking out their names and worried of them being too clockable/too basic… I lurk, so sorry for my anonymous account. I am a 25yo FTM. I made perhaps the worst name choice on earth.

I chose the name Lars, because I liked Metallica and the name finally sounded right to me after years of changing about. You can imagine how well that’s gone. When things began to ‘heat up’ more in regards to tucute online ideology and such… I began realising how stupid my name often feels. Seeing it used almost solely by either trenders, or lumped in with what I would describe as the ‘Steven Universe’ tucutes.

And yet, I pass physically, I have been on T for 8 years, and I promise those of you who are stressed that unless you’re naming yourself ‘Baked Beans’ or ‘Tuna’, if you pass physically people in real life will not question your name beyond a genuine curiosity about where you got it. Even before I passed consistently it wasn’t something that people raised an eyebrow at. And I am saying this as reassurance to those of you who, like me, have settled into a name you love only for it to feel ruined by one thing or another.

The most that happens is people ask if I have Scandinavian relatives, or if I’ve ‘heard of Lars Ulrich’ (which is a win), or they assume I am from a northern country and we both make a good joke about the fact I am shorter than you would expect a man named Lars to be (this also breaks the ice well, weirdly). The majority of people in your day-to-day life will not be browsing trans spaces on the internet and will not have the same preconceived notion of what names are ‘trans’ and which are not.

I also understand, though, worrying about being clocked by other trans people, to which I can say if you do have a more ‘curious’ name like mine you simply put on a straight face and act confused. Out of the few times this has happened (mostly online too) they have dropped it.

And of course, finally, if you really do feel like you can’t handle that around your name… you can always change it. Nobody will be mad.