Writing a Transgender Character

Hi, sorry if I'm late but I've been busy with exams and other projects. Now that I've revised the part of the story where he appears (for the first time), I've changed his name to Blake. I think it's the name I would give to a girl (I'm thinking of Blake Belladonna) but is listed under gender-neutral names, so he likely would keep it with no problem.

To Arilou La Lee Jay, wow, I didn't think Frannie would be a so terrible name, but now I've remedied. Blake is ok , isn't it?

Way better. Good job.

That said, I will say that to me "Frannie" sounds like a nickname derived from "Francis" or "Frances" or any of the various variants, some of which are indeed female names (on the very basic level "Frances" is a female version of "Francis"), but while I do live someplace where English is not the native language so I may be biased somewhat, I will note that from what I've seen of the women I know (well, to be fair, most of my acquaintances are women, because gender-biased acquaintanceship circles are a thing in this world), most of them would, if given a name like "Frances" to mangle with nicknames, go for a nickname like "Ces" or "Cissy", as opposed to "Frannie". As such, while the name "Frannie" itself could very well be gender-neutral and could be a name of a woman who'd choose her name for whatever reason (including her being trans), it just feels unusual for her to use that particular variant willingly, not impossible but definitely unusual, and as far as I know most trans people want to blend in so unless they got really attached to that particular variant they probably wouldn't go for it specifically (though there could be people calling her that).

Anecdotally, if you know weird enough people, you could end up called basically anything. I have been given like a bajilion and four nicknames by the people in my life, and some of them have other lead people, who were introduced to me by the nickname-givers, to assuming that my name is something else than it is because they assumed that the nicknames were derived from my name rather than being wild nonsense than they are, and that lead to them giving me new nicknames. Point is, even if you do give your character a different name, you could have a character call her "Frannie" or whatever if they are ... hmm, let's say "wild" enough, to just randomly give her an out-of-it nickname, and for as long as you made it clear that it's the same person as whatever other name you give her it really shouldn't be an issue.

edited 20th Aug '17 11:14:30 AM by Kazeto

.....except the character we're talking about here is a trans man (female-to-male transgender, just to clarify for those to whom it might not be obvious for whatever reason), so he'd want to avoid an explicitly female-sounding name. And the whole gist of the naming issue here is that one of the supposed hints in the story towards his identity is having a gender-neutral name.

Yeah, I admit I missed the one about it being a trans man. I did know it, because I don't respond in any thread without having read through it properly, but it's been some time since I've done that and I no longer remembered. Oh well, a lesson for the future, I suppose.

That said, I do believe the point somewhat stands, even if specific info attached to it doesn't: just as women are unlikely to pick this exact variant of the name because it does not sound like something they'd be happy with, I do not believe most men would be happy with a nickname that ends with "-nie" as it is a soft ending which I feel is something most men would not want to be used when referred to them.

Or, to sum it up: gender-neutral names can be a pain because if you want it to truly be gender-neutral then you kind of have to have a reason, even if just for yourself, why an average character of both genders would want to have that exact name. And it's harder than normal for a name that sounds like a nickname to get through this particular challenge.