Imagine my chagrin when I found out, upon my acceptance to UCD, that my school email blatantly used the deadname I’ve foregone for years. Transgender, non-binary, and other students who have changed their names due to personal reasons have to suffer the humiliation of having every CU Denver system use their legal name, often their deadname(1), by default.
The LGBTQ+ community is growing faster than ever, and there are of other reasons people decide to change their name. UCD’s application has a space to state what your preferred name is, but their systems fail to incorporate them into email. UCD has a way to change it, but most students on campus are juggling so many things at once that we don’t have a lot of time to spare—either for contacting IT or playing around with settings to fix it. My argument is, we shouldn’t have to jump through hoops if other students don’t.
So why hasn’t the school addressed this issue of defaulting to legal names instead of preferred names? They boast of a thriving LGBTQ+ community to look inclusive yet purportedly don’t have the correct IT settings to accommodate them. If the systems can accurately provide each other with our legal name, what’s stopping it from sharing our preferred names? Although those of us who have deadnames are used to unfair treatment, it doesn’t excuse the fact that it happens.
To this day, my email is my deadname, which causes much confusion between students and professors alike. I could change it, but I’ve left it as is to protest the unfair system and draw more visibility to it. It’s been sort of hard, though. In my email interactions with UCD staff members I don’t know personally, no one reads what name you prefer to identify by, even if you sign it in your email. They only go by the email address itself, which I have had to point out to several employees several times. I’ve taken the time to change Canvas’s settings, so at least roll-call isn’t a complete disaster, but people like me should not be expected to go through this when others do not have to. Our preferred names should always be used for everything other than legal documents, which require one’s legal name by nature.
When someone uses your deadname, it is uncomfortable and humiliating, and, for certain individuals, can even trigger feelings of gender dysphoria. For those who have never changed their name, imagine always getting called a nickname you’ve always hated, or a name from an opposite gender. Being called by a deadname is even worse. Names are incredibly powerful, important things, so when someone calls you by a deadname, it’s like they are denying and undermining your very identity. This is what our school has been doing and continues to do. It’s 2025. As a university that prides itself on inclusivity and diversity, it’s a bad look, UCD.
- A deadname (noun) is the name, often a birth name, a trans, non-binary, or LGBTQ+ person has left behind after choosing their own name.
To deadname someone (verb) is the act of calling a trans, non-binary, or LGBTQ+ person by their birth name after they have chosen a new one.
