Deadnaming

What is deadnaming?

Deadnaming, from the English words “dead” and “name”, is the use of a person’s former name, or deadname, which they used before transition and no longer use. This explanation can even be found on Ukrainian government resources.

The roots of the problem

Unfortunately, many trans people face deadnaming because legally changing their identity documents is difficult or impossible.

Their documents are often not accepted, and they are forced to hear a deadname that they no longer use socially. This also creates risks of both physical and psychological violence. For example, in a US survey of 27,715 respondents, two per cent experienced attacks when presenting “mismatched” identity documents.

Being unable to change documents promptly, whether because of a direct prohibition or bureaucratic and corruption barriers such as those in Ukraine, also gives other people a sense of “moral entitlement” to deadname trans people.

Even after documents have been changed, a deadname may remain known to abusers, remain in databases and internal documents, or be used by family members against a trans person’s wishes.

For example, in a 2024 interview, Elon Musk claimed that his child, Vivian Jenna Wilson, was “dead”. After deadnaming her, he said that he had been “tricked” into signing documents authorising puberty-blocking medication during her transition. In spring 2025, Musk again published a post on his social network X in which he deadnamed Vivian and repeated that his “son died”.

The slide includes Vivian’s response:

“I look pretty good for a dead b-tch”.

Why does it hurt?

Within the concept of minority stress, deadnaming operates on several levels:

• It increases chronic vigilance and alertness.
• It intensifies fear of one’s surroundings.
• It deepens self-stigma.

When someone is deadnamed, they experience sudden social invalidation. They receive a clear signal that their autonomy, self-perception and the difficult inner work of being who they are have been devalued and erased. This can provoke an acute dysphoric response.

For many trans people, a deadname is also a trigger that can cause dissociation, depersonalisation, freezing or even flashbacks.

One of the key ways to build resilience to minority stress is to affirm a person’s identity and dignity. The more often parents of trans adolescents used their chosen names, the less depression and anxiety the adolescents experienced: Fontanari et al., 2020.

A study examining the experiences of 129 trans and gender-nonconforming adolescents found that using a chosen name in more contexts was associated with lower levels of depression, suicidal thoughts and suicidal behaviour. Depression and suicidality were lowest when chosen names could be used in every context.

What about freedom of speech?

As we have discussed, intentionally deadnaming a trans person is used to discriminate against them and humiliate their honour and dignity. Disclosing a trans person’s deadname is also a direct interference in their private life and is unlawful in many developed countries.

In the European Union’s legal framework, for example, deadnaming in digital systems, public registers and commercial databases is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

EU law requires database controllers to ensure that the information they process is up to date and to take reasonable steps promptly to erase or correct outdated information.

An interesting precedent arose in Hungary. Migration authorities refused to update a refugee’s gender marker and name in public registers without evidence of medical transition. The Court of Justice of the EU held that the absence of specific national administrative procedures cannot deprive a person of the protection of accurate identifiers guaranteed by EU law, effectively prohibiting the compulsory retention of deadnames in state registers.

If you like deadnaming, be prepared to pay fines

Under Section 14(2) of Germany’s Self-Determination Act, deadnaming can be treated as an administrative offence, punishable by a fine of up to €10,000.

In common-law countries, case law has developed by treating deadnaming as harassment or direct discrimination. In one case, a Canadian human rights tribunal examined an employer’s persistent use of an employee’s deadname on the pretext that it was the employee’s “official name in documents”. This was an abuse of rights, however, because the company simultaneously tolerated informal nicknames for cisgender employees. The refusal to use the chosen name was therefore found to be deliberate humiliation creating a hostile work environment. The employee was awarded $18,000.

In the United Kingdom, a trans woman was awarded more than £25,400 in compensation from a local authority for failing to update corporate databases and deadnaming her over a period of two years.

A “sacred right” to deadname?

Transphobes continue publicly to defend their “sacred right” to deadname. Twitter’s policy is one example: after Elon Musk bought and renamed the social network, its policy against deadnaming was removed. At the same time, calling cis people cis people was proposed as an insult.

Despite the widespread narrative that deadnaming merely “reveals the truth” or represents a “basic right under freedom of speech”, it is in fact a direct attack on a person’s honour and dignity, and a weapon for discrimination and violence.

Deadnaming is usually traumatic for trans people. No one should have to experience it under any circumstances.

Sources

• Emancipation NGO’s original Instagram carousel.
• Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine: Ministry of Justice on digital violence.
• Fontanari et al. (2020).
• Russell et al. (2018).
• Telex: Court of Justice of the EU ruling, 14 March 2025.
• Anwalt.org: penalties for misgendering.
• KMLAW: compensation for misgendering and deadnaming at work.
• Collyer Bristow: compensation awarded to a trans woman.
• ITC: “cis” terminology on Twitter.
• AP: Twitter removes its deadnaming policy.
• Vivian Jenna Wilson’s post.

With support from

Published with support from TGEU — Trans Europe and Central Asia.