Name struggles

@tiredchaos hmm well, there's 2 ways to approach this:

You could treat Tyler like it's your birth name: for the most part, we don't choose what it is and instead of us fitting the name, the name grows to "fit" us simply because that's just our name. So going this route, you just stick with it because in the end, names are just what you're called, the fact that that's how people refer to you is really all it needs to be. It would be weird if all parents magically picked the name that suited their children? And yet that's basically what happens, because instead, the name just grows with them and is associated with them. (Of course, the name your parents pick might not work out if you're not the gender assigned to you at birth, but the "mechanics" of a name are still the same)

The other option is to play around with names and find what suits you more now. The tricky part of this is that you never really stop growing and changing and developing as a person, so there may come a time when even this new name doesn't feel right. But the good part is that you can feel comfortable and happy when your name comes up. It's tough getting friends to call you by a different name...perhaps they could be involved in the process of picking a new one? It might make it an easier transition that just walking up to them and saying "hey, call me Jason now" :P although you're perfectly welcome to do that too!

Overall..there's probably not a wrong choice here. And how your friends react could be varied, but if they're your friends it should work out with time and some honest conversations :)

@tiredchaos its never too late to change, do what feels good for you