The impact of deadnaming

Abstract To deadname is to call a trans person by a name they have rejected. Deadnaming has a visceral impact. Why? This paper canvasses several possible answers. While deadnaming may sometimes evoke painful memories or communicate that the speaker is transphobic, I suggest that deadnaming is hurtful for fundamentally prohibitionist reasons. When a deadname is used, it violates a prohibition that has been enacted by a trans person’s exercise of linguistic authority; violating this prohibition is impactful. I sketch how this explanation of impact can be readily extended to provide a rights-based account of the normative dimensions of deadnaming, too.