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Deadnaming is the act of calling a transgender or non-binary person by their birth name or other former forename (their '
Deadnaming is considered offensive, as it misgendering its subject and potentially outing them as transgender. This can be done to intentionally deny or invalidate a person's gender identity. In other cases, a speaker who is still adjusting to a new name may do so accidentally.
Trans people often face legal and bureaucratic obstacles in changing their names. Published authors and media figures who have later transitioned may be troubled by the appearance of their former name in metadata records, which can be difficult to change. Some organizations have implemented policies to standardize the use of Preferred name instead of legal names, or formally ban the practice of deadnaming.
Like misgendering, deadnaming can be a form of overt aggression or a microaggression, indicating that the target is not fully accepted as a member of society. Transgender activists consider the deadnaming of homicide victims and high-profile celebrities by news media to be a violation of privacy, and a contributing factor to transphobia. Deadnaming may also be done accidentally by people who are otherwise Straight ally, such as supportive family members or friends who have not yet become accustomed to using a trans person's new name. Repeated failures to avoid deadnaming, however, can be considered disrespectful.
Journalistic , health-practitioner manuals, and LGBTQ advocacy groups advise adopting transgender people's names and pronouns, even when referring to them in the past, prior to transitioning. A 2021 survey by The Trevor Project showed that trans and nonbinary youth who changed their name, gender marker, or both on legal documents, including birth certificates and driver's licenses, had lower rates of suicide attempts.
Queer scholar Lucas Crawford has theorized that some transgender people insist on preventing deadnaming in part as a strategy of prospective self-assertion: "by insisting on the primacy of the present, by seeking to erase the past, or even by emotionally locating their 'real self' in the future, that elusive place where access (to transition, health care, housing, a livable wage, and so on) and social viability tend to appear more abundant." Correcting deadnaming by third parties is cited as a way to support trans people.
Journalist and University of California researcher Theresa Tanenbaum reported frustration with attempting to update the 83 publications attributed to her deadname, with many publishers ignoring or refusing her request. In 2021, Berkeley Lab led an effort to simplify name changes for published researchers, which saw agreement from many national laboratories and scientific publishers.
On December 1, 2020, the same day actor Elliot Page came out as a trans man, Netflix began updating metadata for films Page previously appeared in to credit him by his chosen name. PopSugar writer Grayson Gilcrease noted that this was the first time Netflix had made such a change, and speculated that it was due to Page's popularity in The Umbrella Academy; she contrasted this with trans actress Josie Totah, who at the time was still credited under her deadname for her role in Champions.
In 2013, the English Wikipedia elicited media coverage over its response to Chelsea Manning's public transition. The article about Manning was initially quickly renamed, but a protracted dispute ensued; the matter was ultimately taken up by the site's Arbitration Committee, which imposed sanctions on editors espousing transphobia, but also on those making accusations of transphobia. Wikimedia Foundation executive Sue Gardner expressed disappointment over the handling of Wikipedia's response.
On March 12, 2021, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction announced that its student information system would display each student's "preferred name" rather than birth name, which would eliminate deadnaming on state reports, student report cards, and teacher grade books.
In late June 2021, the website Fandom announced new LGBT guidelines across its websites in addition to the existing terms of use policy that prohibits deadnaming transgender people across their websites. The guidelines include links to queer-inclusive and trans support resources, and further guidelines were released in September 2021, related to addressing gender identity.
In November 2022, following its acquisition by Elon Musk, Twitter reinstated the account of Jordan Peterson, who Twitter had previously suspended for a tweet deadnaming Elliot Page, and The Babylon Bee, which was suspended for a tweet misgendering U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine. In April 2023, Twitter removed deadnaming from its hateful content guidelines.
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