Help & Advice - Transgender and transsexual

This item has been contributed to by one of our serving members who wrote many useful items relating to transition in the P2SForum.

You've decided to transition, and have no doubt for some time chosen a new name for yourself in your new gender role. For whatever reason, it seems to fit. Many choose the female or male version of their old name, so Stephen will become Stephanie, or Paula becomes Paul. This is often an easy option, but many prefer a complete change as their opposite's name just doesn't suit them, or they simply want a complete change. I went for Lisa as it was short and sweet like my former male name, and well, I liked the sound of it, and it can't really be shorted (ok even I sign off as Lis') but it was part of the method of my old name where my mother chose it, because it couldn't be shortend. My middle name came as a thank you to a friend who helped me through a few rough times, her surname being 'Mitchell' I took 'Michelle' as my middle name, we all have our reasons.

There are four ways that any UK resident can use to change their name, but of course not all of them will satisfy all the requirements of the military administrators, banks and other organisations. These are listed in turn below.

1 - Simply call yourself something else

In England and Wales the law does not require you to follow any procedure in order to change your names, in as much as you can call yourself whatever you want, as long as you are not doing to defraud anyone. From a legal point of view this is fine, but there are of course some insurmountable practical difficulties. Organisations like the military and your bank will be unwilling to accept that your name has changed without some evidence in writing.