As someone who changed his name just for fun when I thought I was still cis, i promise most people are ok with accepting a new name, even if you lie and say it’s a nickname. I promise. It’s really easy to just casually go “hey I wanna go by Bob now, it’s an old nickname I wanna bring back” like. Just start introducing yourself to new ppl, no one knows better. and if someone accidentally deadnames you just go haha no I go by my nickname now.
It sucks that ppl treat nicknames as more sacred than trans ppls choice names but still.
