When Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” he meant that the essence of something is not determined by its label. Calling a plum a pear does not make it taste any different.

Names do have some meaning, of course. Every child is warned against “name calling,” even by those who like to think that words, unlike sticks and stones, do no harm. The names of Civil War generals, ex-presidents, the Sacklers (of opioid fame), and the Washington, DC, football team have been removed, refused, challenged, or changed. No reasonable person today would take on the name Hitler, or even Adolf for that matter.

Names are intensely personal. When a transgender person takes a new name, their old name is called a “dead name.” The implication is that the new name signifies a new person; the old person, and their affiliated gender, has passed away, and a new person, with a new gender and name, has come to life.

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