Help Simplify Name Changes for Trans People Across the U.S.

The past several years have been defined by social unrest and unprecedented levels of cruelty towards queer and trans people by elected officials in the U.S. Now, more than ever, we need to band together, uplift each other, and work with allies and advocates towards immediate short-term safety and long-term change.

Since Trump’s election in 2024, 1 in 10 trans people reported moving states, which amounts to an estimated 400,000 people seeking relocation in an effort to escape violence and improve their quality of life. Names are a major part of one’s identity, and often a matter of personal safety, but the process itself can be overwhelming and expensive.

Namesake is working to clarify the name change process by providing tailored guides and step-by-step forms for each U.S. state. We do this by working alongside local and regional LGBTQ+ non-profits and legal orgs to make sure that every guide is clear, accurate, and help anticipates and answer common questions that arise. Hundreds of trans people in Massachusetts have already used Namesake's guides to help them navigate the process and fill out forms.

We want to expand to support more trans people in more states, but we need your support! We’re aiming to raise money to offset our expenses such as rising server costs for site hosting, payment for contributors, and to ensure everything we build remains free and open-source. All of our contributors work on Namesake "on the side" from other jobs, so any donation truly goes a long way to make this work possible.

If you’re unable to donate but still want to help, consider contributing code or content, helping answer name change questions from others in Discord (or just provide encouragement), or connecting Namesake with organizations similar to ours (email us at hey@namesake.fyi). Simply sharing our project and advocating for us is worth a lot to us!

Happy Pride from all of us at Namesake. This system wasn't built for us, but we'll get through it together.