Parents were white Americans on an Air Force base in rural Japan. They gave me an Irish boy’s name that would be reasonably smooth in katakana. I transitioned to female at 28, kept it, pronunciation and spelling (タニス) and all. A lot of people think my last name is Japanese too, but it isn’t. I’m not sure where it came from. I learned English when I moved to America when I was 11. Most people don’t know I can speak Japanese from looking at me.
From the perspective of an international audience, the name sounds fairly unisex. Is it actually gendered in your own language?
Parents were white Americans on an Air Force base in rural Japan. They gave me an Irish boy’s name that would be reasonably smooth in katakana. I transitioned to female at 28, kept it, pronunciation and spelling (タニス) and all. A lot of people think my last name is Japanese too, but it isn’t. I’m not sure where it came from. I learned English when I moved to America when I was 11. Most people don’t know I can speak Japanese from looking at me.