Kay is my sixth name.
My mother chose the name Jacqueline. She was certain she was having a girl. When it came to it I was named Jack instead.
I changed my name from Jack to Amy when I read about a study by two university psychologists called Shamas and Dawson. They asked 100 pregnant women what sex they thought their child would be. The women who expressed an intuition were right over 70% of the time.
I changed my name from Amy to Braille when my friend Terry messaged me about a game show he was watching. One of the contestants was called Amy. He had been assuming for the whole show that Amy was the male contestant.
I changed my name from Braille to Caden when my friend Jasmine told me that she liked Braille. Jack was boring, she said, and Amy was a bit weird, but Braille was nice.
I changed my name from Caden to Kay when my therapist asked if I thought my parents had any idea that I was transgender.
“I don’t think so. I changed my name to Amy for a while. I don’t think they thought much of it, though.”
We both laughed.