If you have a gender-neutral birth name as a trans woman, which is more based: Changing your name to a feminine one, or keeping your birth name?

I feel like it would be comforting to have an unmistakably feminine name, like a warm blanket. And choosing your own name has backbone as well. Like sure, you could make a gender-neutral birth name work. But there isn't anything inherently *better* or more virtuous about doing that over choosing a new name. Because the entire process of transition is a rejection of externally imposed identity. A chosen name is a perfect reflection of that principle. Choosing to change one's name to a more comfortable, feminine version is the *opposite* of caving to external pressure. Trans people don't change our names to fit in; society expects us to be masculine for example, and to have a correspondingly masculine name.

But I also like the backbone and the courage of sticking with your birthname. And it makes you un-deadname-able as a plus. Hunter Schafer did not change her name at all (Hunter James Schafer) and she's still a badass. I kinda feel like if you go this route you have to pass really well though, otherwise it doesn't work as well.

What do you think?