So I found my old notes, which contain mostly a whole bunch of names I'm thinking of using for my main character.
Main character being trans*, they come in a wide variety.
Names that mean 'brave' (leaning toward some in this group):
Casey (both, Celtic, Gaelic, Irish)
Kim (both, Anglo-Saxon and in other cultures with other meanings)
Leonard (male, Teutonic)
Tracy (both, Anglo-Saxon, Greek, Latin)
Tracey (male, Anglo-Saxon, Greek)
Leona (female, French/Latin)
Adler (male, Teutonic)
Leandra (female, Latin)
Names that mean 'wealthy':
Audwin (male, Teutonic)
Jessica (female, Hebrew)
Rich (male, English)
The 'wealthy' group doesn't have any nonbinary names, strictly speaking, but Audwin is uncommon enough and has the right qualities to pass for a nonbinary name, and I kinda like it and Jessica. On the other hand, 'brave' actually means something relevant, and contains the nice handy Casey which both has roots of being both a male and a female name and also is commonly used in this country as both, unlike Kim, which I've only ever heard as a male name in a book.
It occurs to me I should talk a little about the plot of this book. Truth is, I don't strictly have a plot yet. I have characters, and I have problems. For those of you who don't speak any Spanish, all nouns are either feminine or masculine. La mesa (the table), la abuela (the grandmother), and la mano (the hand) are all feminine. El mapa (the map), el abuelo (the grandfather), and el lápiz (the pencil) are all masculine. And adjectives match. La mesa sucia (the dirty table), but el mapa sucio (the dirty map). Spanish speakers don't use these to mean that tables are female or pencils are male, so most of the time gender is just part of the language. The trouble comes in when you're talking about people. Talking about people in the third person comes with the same problems as in English. "She's really funny." Cringe, goes the trans boy. In Spanish: "Ella es muy chistosa." Wrong pronoun AND wrong adjective ending. Now think about how in Spanish, that cringe extends even when you're being spoken to. "You're really funny" becomes "Eres muy chistosa" or "Eres muy chistoso" depending on whether you're a guy or a gal.
Finally, think about how badly it works if you're genderqueer, agender, third gender--let me sum all of those and their relatives under gender nonbinary. "This person is really funny" is still gendered. And there is no useful equivalent to 'they', nor, worst of all, any ending to the adjective that doesn't gender a person. Even if you use a shortened name as a pronoun: "KC es muy chistoso. Chistosa. Chistoso/a. Chistos@." Both those last two are in relatively common use as a shortening in print, but a) can't be pronounced (@ is pronounced like o, which completely defeats the purpose) and b) still implies binary.
So naturally, I came up with two characters. Main character, the As Yet Unnamed (AYU?) grew up with female pronouns and a best friend, Jimena. Jimena and AYU met in kindergarten, and have been inseparable ever since. Jimena's family is Puerto Rican, and so Jimena is bilingual, and indeed, tends to switch to Spanish when she gets excited. Naturally, AYU started picking up Spanish as well. Noting this, AYU's parents arranged for Spanish lessons from a very young age, and AYU grew up with a fascination for the language and pretty near fluent in it. AYU and Jimena grew up considering it 'their' language, and switch to it whenever they want to have a private conversation in public.
Then, AYU finds out what it means to be transgender, gets the yes, this is what I've been waiting for feeling, and suddenly Jimena doesn't know how to speak 'their' language to AYU anymore. Think how tricky it can be to suddenly switch all your pronouns when a friend comes out--now double that to include your adjectives. To top it off, Jimena's got the whole Puerto Rican cultural background informing her values--how well do they accept trans* people? It's tricky enough to switch to male words, but then AYU decides what they really are is gender nonbinary (not sure which form yet), and suddenly there isn't any language to use. Part of the story is choosing first a male name, then a nonbinary name for AYU, and it's Jimena's idea to pick names that mean the same thing as AYU's original girl's name. Thus the lists of name meanings.
Why the sudden switch in perception, I'm not sure--does AYU switch schools? Is this college? Does Jimena come or no? What physical-world problems come to help this along? Bullies is kinda overdone, even if it is real. Problems with parents? I've not even worked out who AYU's parents are. I've been thinking about getting AYU pregnant--the ultimate send-your-character-up-a-tree-and-throw-rocks-at-them for someone with dysphoria, but I'm not sure I'm that mean. I've set characters on fire, killed them by starvation, and shot them just as they were straightening out their love life, but I'm not sure I'm mean enough to get AYU pregnant.
Finally, good news--I forgot I have access to a couple college library systems, and thus have found another five books I can get free!
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