Around a week ago, I made a blog post detailing my reasoning for deciding to use the name June going forward. This post serves as a follow up to to that, after a week of using the name.

And what a week it’s been.

Firstly, I told my close friends, who started using the name for me. I outlined in the original post that I would still be okay using my old name in online spaces, though I very quickly realised that that would not be the case for much longer. I changed my display name on Twitter and Discord to reflect my new name.

Over the weekend, I went to a puzzle game LAN event in London. The event was great! We all wore name tags, which also had pronouns on them, so that people knew who was who - a perfect opportunity for me to try out my new name. Thus, I wrote my new name on my name tag (technically, my friend wrote my name tag, because their handwriting is far far prettier than mine). My friends using my new name for me felt incredible every time, but what felt even better was the new people I met calling me my name, not knowing my previous name. They didn’t have to think about it and correct themselves. To them, June was just my name, and I loved that.

It felt so right. Every time.

When I returned from the event, I went out to get food with my partner and my housemate. Even small, inconsequential things, such as using my name on the form when ordering food to the table online, bring me such happiness. I even went to the hairdressers to make an appointment to get my hair cut, and when the guy asked for a name for the booking, I was able to say a name that I don’t feel weird saying, and I was able to say it with pride.

I thought that I would still be indifferent to my old name in certain contexts. The events of the weekend really helped it sink in that June is my name, and it helped me realise quite how much I want to be freed from my old name. Given it is in my username pretty much everywhere else, it feels more like a burden at this point! I desperately am wanting to be able to come up with a new username that I can use in places instead, however I am cursed by my lack of creativity. I’m sure I will come up with something eventually, but when that will be and what I will come up with, I have no idea yet. I have changed my username on social platforms to various temporary usernames with my name in it, though once I come up with something better, they will be changed to that. I still need to think of a new domain name, too!

It has only been a week and a half, so I don’t want to rush into anything, but I am genuinely considering doing an unenrolled deed poll for this name at some point in the near future. So many people said that it suits me, and I completely agree. I’ll probably give it another month or two and see where I am then, but I am very very hopeful for the future.