When saying the name of a trans person, it’s when you use their previous name from before their transition. E.g. saying Ellen Page instead of Elliot Page.
Presumably it can also mean just calling someone by their previous name that they prefer to leave behind, even if not trans.
I have no idea who Musk’s child is and no desire to look it up.
subignition@fedia.io 3 months ago
Intentionally using the former name ("dead name") of a (typically trans) person with the intent to cause harm
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Okay, now that you’ve edited your comment to clarify, it makes sense. The term dead seemed quite literal in your previous and original text, but now I can see it is a term for that part of society, when they change their name and leave the ordinary behind., and it is insulting to that person.
Since it wasn’t clear at the start, but that’s okay. Now it makes sense.
adespoton@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
Here’s a deadnaming example that should resonate with conservative women…
You get married and take your husband’s name, but your parents insist on continuing to call you by your maiden name.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 3 months ago
I wouldn’t just say conservative women, since this is a really good explanation for anyone. My cousin and partner changed their last name to something altogether different when they got married. For them, it wasn’t fair to the one for the other take the first’s family name, so they just chose a new one. It was really hard for the rest of the family (there’s a history with that family name that caused the hardship in its change, and the name holds a lot of weight to the entire extended family). Do you know what didn’t happen, though? Absolutely no one, despite how hard it was for them, called the couple by their former name once they announced the name change. Not even our grandmother, whose family name it was and was carried over from her deceased husband. One of their former friends (not even family), however, refused to accept the name change, and kept calling them by their former name. I would consider that dead naming, too.
Name changes are hard for the people around you. Not always for malicious reasons. For me, for example, when a trans friend changed names, I kept calling them by the name that was ingrained in my head for a decade. I caught myself, and fixed it during the conversations. I apologized the first few times, and was assured that no apologies were needed, since it was clear I was trying. It took a bit, but the new name has now been associated with them, and I no longer stumble. Some people, I’ve noticed, find it offensive, for some stupid reason, when someone changes their own name, and will absolutely not call them by it. I will never understand that part. It’s not your name–i’s their name ffs–just flippin call them by their preferred name.
I went off on a tangent, but all this to say that you offered a good, generic, applies-to-all-generations explanation.
subignition@fedia.io 3 months ago
I did not edit my comment. Why are you lying?
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
I guess I hit reply. Started typing.
You hit edit whilst I was typing. I replied some minutes later.
Makes perfect sense to me.
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Look, if you did not, then that’s fine, but I completely read it differently earlier. To me, it read, as though you said, a dead trans person. That made it so niche that it was bizarre and incomprehensible that anybody would even understand it. But as people have commented below, I now fully understand.
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
That is incredibly niche. I’m sure 99.999% of the population would not know what that is, were it happening to them.
I mean, how many names of dead trans people would the general person on the street know?
Lumelore@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 months ago
It’s not specifically of dead trans people, they meant of all trans people. The term deadname typically refers to the birth name of a trans person that they no longer use.
ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Yeah he’s not asking that question in good faith.
Holyginz@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It’s just some edgy troll thinking they are being clever
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Thank you for the clarification. Yes, I can see that the person I replied to has now edited their comment also be more specific. It literally read as though they meant someone who was literally dead, and was trans, which made absolutely zero sense.
Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 months ago
No, that’s you thinking you’re funny when you troll so poorly.
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
No, the person I replied to has simply edited their comment to be clearer. They originally wrote it as though they meant a literal dead person.
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 months ago
Let’s say you knew someone named Bob, who later came out as a trans woman named Sue. If you insisted on calling her Bob instead of Sue, that would be deadnaming.
makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Excellent description. Thank you for the clarity. That makes more sense.