#non-binary name

Some of you may remember that when I first came out publicly as trans, I mentioned the possibility of changing my name. I've never experienced much discomfort with the gender of my name (on the West Coast, and here in the Southwest, Erin and Aaron are typically pronounced the same), so it wasn't high on my list of priorities. However, I don't want to keep my name as Erin, because that's pretty commonly accepted as a woman's name, and it makes me uncomfortable (I know there are men named Erin, but it's uncommon enough that I've never actually met one, personally). And I don't want to change my name to Aaron, because that's my favorite uncle's name, and it's confusing enough as it stands.

Now, those of you who know me in person or on other social media platforms have probably noticed that a while back I changed the spelling of my name over to Aaron. Honestly, that was mostly a visual cue for people, because I've found it's easier for many of my friends and family to have a reminder of how to refer to me, and having a "male" name is one way to do that. But I haven't been completely happy with it, because... To me, that's my uncle's name.

So I've been quietly mulling over names. This is kind of a big decision, and even though it's something I've thought about off and on for YEARS (since I was a kid), I've never come up with much in the way of names I like. Unfortunately, my top pick, my favorite unisex name, is not commonly considered to be unisex in the US. Sure, I've met both male and female Leslie's, but... The male ones were nearly all foreigners, and often had become defensive about the gender of their name. So while I love the name Leslie, I don't think I'd be happy with the results of using it for my own name.