Are they just being creative though, or are they purposefully making it very different?

Do they think just a slight name change will be seen as a joke or temporary?

I've never had to think about the mental process of choosing my own name, but I like the feminine version enough for now.

But if it was a really important thing for me to distinguish my identity separate from my birth name, that might change my decision.

But I've only considered it on the surface, like "what if I woke up at a Halloween party wearing a dress", or doing a dare/forfeit kind of thing.

I'm thinking that a huge portion of the trans community came out of circumstances where they're shamed for it, and might choose to distance themselves from that whole part of their life.

So I totally get it, but from a surface-level consideration, I wouldn't mind the femme version of my name.