Baires is my legal last name right now, I got it from my dad. I don’t really feel connected to him so I should be feeling a disconnect right now, however I found it to be the perfect gender neutral name when I found out I was non binary. Ever since two years ago August 2013 when I came out and told people to call me Baires I feel so much better with myself because even though I’m not connect to my dad I feel like I’m carrying his name. In a sense I wanted to be proud of his family name being carried on but it’ll be my middle name once I finally get that legal change process completed. I’m not connected to my dad whatsoever because my parents divorced when I was young. In a sense I don’t really care for him but he’s still my father. I can’t fully erase him away but, I’m also making my own name out of it sense it’s going to be my middle name instead of being my last name.
Gloribel Baires Serrano is my full preferred name. Gloribel which is currently my middle name will be moved to my first, Baires my first last name will be moved to the middle and Serrano my mother’s last name will be my last name. That’s a name that I want to carry as well, especially because my mother got it after she got her citizenship so I’m like, this is for my mom! Baires is kind of for my dad but not really, it’s just going to be mine, I’m going to make it mine. My mother’s last name, I’m proud to carry it with me. I haven’t come out to any of my family. Only one cousin knows and she’s really okay with it. She knows the origins are from my dad and everything but she know I’m making it my own thing. She knows I’m happy with the name I’ve given myself and she respectfully calls me by that so it’s all good. Everyone calls me Baires and the funny thing is Baires wasn’t the name I had picked out yet. I had taken it for a Chinese class where everyone was given their Chinese name and there were two Virginia’s. I was like let’s not go by that lets go by my last name Baires, then I got a Chinese name out of that. My name is unique, everyone knows it’s me. If there’s someone else with it I know it’s from my dad’s family, but they don’t know who I am, and that’s okay. With a legal name change I get to be comfortable being who I really am because I’m still in the closet with my family. This will be the first step to being who I want to be around them even though I’m not going to come out to them for another three to five years. My mom has heard people call me Baires but she has not questioned it yet thankfully. I think in time she’ll realized that it’s a name that I want to have even though she gave me like five different names when I was born. I’ve found that the origins of Baires are from Germany or Argentina but I’m not from there. If I were to make up my own meaning for my name it would mean, personal connection because it’s the bridge from going to who I used to be to who I want to be in the future. It’ll be my bridge, Baires will mean bridge!