We are all on the well -known soliloquie “What is in a name?” In fact, many seem to agree with this view – to believe that names are only meaningless vessels that are separated from the internal value of a person. However, studies suggest the opposite: names reflect far more than we could assume. The way in which individuals are addressed can have profound consequences for the construction of the self.
This applies in particular to people who had difficulty aligning their external identity with their inner self -feeling – especially members of the LGBTQ+ community. For many, names for their social identity are of fundamental importance and closely associated with gender. As a result, individuals often choose to reject their names given to them at birth, especially if these names cause distress and alienation by not reflecting their true gender identity.
However, these rejected names are not neutral. They are deeply contaminated and can carry associations of trauma, abandoned and alienate. The reference to individuals under these names is not only an act of disrespect or deterioration – it can also cause trauma answers such as stress, fear and an omnipresent feeling for dysphoria.
Source: Fii
This is known as Deadnaming. To put it simply, the Deadnaming refers to the act, a transgender person – or everyone who has rejected their birth name – to access this earlier name.
Deadnaming can be harmless or not. In both cases, it has the potential to cause stress. It can be better understood if it examines how language has power to strengthen exploitial social structures. philosopher Judith Butler How language can be used to wound individuals and groups to wound, subordinate or strengthen. It describes this as harmful language – a language that transforms individuals into subordinate subjects, hierarchy and violence. In other words, language can serve as a vehicle of the damage.
At the same time, identity and self -recognition is built -up through language and constantly develops through socio-cultural phenomena instead of expressing solid categories. Self -definition is therefore deeply rooted in language and names become the basic linguistic markers of personal and social identity.
Self -definition is therefore deeply rooted in language and names become the basic linguistic markers of personal and social identity.
The selection of a new name is therefore a significant possibility of transgender individuals to overcome social expectations of gender identities imposed on them, especially in cultures in which certain names are strongly connected and to control and control their new identities.
Early knowledge is therefore an act of illegitimation of such identities and the rejection of their self -determined existence. It positions a transgender person as someone whose self-identification is not legitimate or deserves recognition and reinforces marginalization and fainting. Therefore, the individual in question is often “defined” with the name imposed on them instead of obtaining the decision to define itself. It can often take different forms and are often used as shots that affect and contest the legitimacy of new names.
Source: Fii
However, Deadnaming is not limited to individual cases. Rather, it is harmful effects of its repetition in social contexts (e.g. legal documents, media, family interactions).
Even in situations in which they are unintentional, internalized transthobia often reflects. In fact, Butler speaks about how the harmful speech is not the invention of the speaker, but a “quote” already existing power structures. In different cases, the dead name can take on institutionalized forms. Transgender persons are often legal obstacles to the name changes, rejection of the authorities and institutions, old names, etc. For example transthobia and discrimination In Hospitals Often includes the Deadnaming -leading transgender persons in order to avoid the search for the care or hiding place of your identities in order to avoid discrimination.
We also see forms of Deadnamen in cases of media reporting on violence against transgender persons in which the media Refers to transgender individuals through its born names and not to its actual name, which corresponds to its identity, which reflects the deep-seated tendency towards denaturalization (or fake) of the selected identity of the trans perspective.
Deadnaming thus a form of “immortalized”Illocutionary disabilityOr do trans -people refuse to define themselves.
Deadnaming thus a form of “immortalized”Illocutionary disabilityOr do trans -people refuse to define themselves.
Deadnaming and public order
It is worth noting that no large country has criminalized as an independent crime. Punish measures are usually indirectly and bound to wider anti-discrimination or anti-nuisance laws. Although they were recorded in different clauses Title VII for enemy work environment sexual harassment Claims in which the subclassion is repeated Data protection laws in Germany This includes the financing of people in order to maliciously disclose confidential information, e.g. However, an integrated political approach to Deadnaming is largely missing in the global political world.
Source: Fii
In addition, the latest attempts to punish Deadnaming were withdrawn. For example, Twitter’s step to remove protection against Deadnaming in 2023
In India, despite the considerable progress in relation to the rights and the identity of transgender persons with pioneering judgments such as Nalsa vs. Union of India, where the Supreme Court confirmed the right to self -identified gender, confronted transgender people with several bureaucratic hurdles that hang their legal names and gender markings. For example, changes of names often include dealing with magistrates at district level and civil servants, of whom many internalized transthobia reflect, who refuse to adopt their right to adopt a self -tasting identity.
The proper way to take into account the proper way with the Deadnamen in a holistic way must be integrated into bureaucratic curricula for the sensitivity of gender sensitivity.
However, guidelines that sensitize against Deadnaming must also be included in daily professional and personal practices. The integration into the academic language was quick. Important style leaders such as the AP Style Guide and Reuters now recommend the name with which a transgender person currently lives. Further, Glaads The media reference manual recommends the use of the active voice (“The name of the person is X”) and not the wording that indicates that the name is optional or a preference (“the person goes according to x”).
Further, Glaads The media reference manual recommends the use of the active voice (“The name of the person is X”) and not the wording that indicates that the name is optional or a preference (“the person goes according to x”).
The introduction of such stylistic guidelines in the Indian academic, professional and administrative procedures is of essential importance for the introduction of gender inclusions in the daily practices.
Source: Fii
Deadnaming is therefore not just a neutral error, but an expression of internalized transthobia that tries to undermine the authentic self-determination of trans-people by delegitimizing its chosen names. The overcoming of Deadnaming therefore requires a broader effort to reduce transthobia by involving integrative practices in the daily life of individuals.
Sohalika Shrivastava is a student in the 3rd year at Iit Madras Out and shortly before it is to carve a niche. In her free time she likes to read about animal facts and likes to learn