Lana Hunter?

For a long time now, I have been kicking around the idea of changing my name.

When I chose "Staci" for my femme name, I did not put much thought into it.

I was dressing for years at home and my only crossdressing forays out in public were on Halloween, so I really did not need a femme name. And it never occurred to me to pick a femme name for my femme persona. I guess that's because I don't have separate personas. I am the same person dressed as a male or dressed as a female, so why would I need to change my name.

When I started reading the messages on CompuServe's Genderline back in the 1980s. I immediately noticed that most of the guys online had feminine names. I read Genderline messages for years without posting any messages myself, so I still did not need a femme name.

When my wife urged me to find a local support group, the only place I was aware of where I might find out about a local support group was Genderline, so I had to come up with a femme name quickly before I posted my first message to avoid outing myself by using my male name.

Many crossdressers take the easy way out and use the feminine version of their male name, for example, Dean becomes Deanna, Steven becomes Stephanie, Eric becomes Erica, and Jordan becomes Jordan. I am always in favor of the path of least resistance, so I decided to use the feminine version of my name and I became "Staci."

As Staci, I asked about local support groups on Genderline, where I found out about Connecticut Outreach Society (COS), started attending COS meetings, and became acquainted with other transfolk.

Over the years, I have known a number of transfolk who changed their name from the feminine version of their male name to something that they liked better (for one reason or another). I often considered doing the same thing, but I really did not find another name that interested me enough to bother changing.

Yesterday, on the drive home from work, I had an epiphany. I suddenly came up with a new name that did interest me enough to bother changing: Lana. The new name had a lot going for it.

Lana is a name that is not common. I personally don't know anyone so named and I am aware of only one celebrity (deceased film star Lana Turner), who was so named.

Lana is a name I always liked. I first came across the name reading a Superman comic book when I was a kid. It was the name of a secondary character, Lana Lang, who was a love interest of Superman, but she always lost out to Lois Lane. (If I was Superman, I would have taken Lana Lang over Lois Lane, but to each his own.) Anyway, she was probably my favorite female comic book character, although my affinity for Lana Lang was neck and neck with my affinity for Katy Keene.

In my humble opinion, Lana is a very sexy and feminine name.

Lana is an obscure Beach Boys song, which I like.

So, I had my new name. But before I transitioned from Staci to Lana, I decided to look up the meaning of my new name. Surprise! It turns out that my new name is the feminine form of a male name, Alan. When I looked up Alan, it turns out that the meaning of the male name is not known for certain. Hmmm...

I decided to look up the meaning of Staci. The web site says it is the feminine variant of Stacey (which, by the way, is not my male name).

Next, I look up Stacey and it is an either/or name, i.e., it can be masculine or feminine. It is also short for Anastasia and Eustace.

Next, I look up Anastasia and it is the feminine form of Anastasius.

Finally, I look up Anastasius and it is the Latinized form of the Greek name Anastasios, which meant "resurrection" from Greek (anastasis). So, Staci/Stacey/Anastasia/Anastasius means a rising again into life, activity, or prominence.

Hey - I like that! But I still like my new name, too. What's a girl to do? I wish I had one of those Magic 8 balls handy to help me decide.

If you have any opinions on my name, please leave a comment. And vote in the Changing my name... poll, too.