A transgender woman vying for mayor of Amarillo is barred under state law from running under her chosen rather than legal name, officials said Wednesday.

That recently forced Sandra Dunn to withdraw her application for the city's top elected office and refile as F.E. (Sandra Dunn) Dunaway. That still might not meet the requirements of state law.

The election code requires her to use some form of her legal name, Fred E. Dunaway, though she can include a one-word, nonhyphenated nickname of not more than 10 letters, said secretary of state spokeswoman Jordy Keith.

Nicknames can be written in quotation marks or parentheses, but the election ballot must punctuate nicknames of all candidates in the same form, city Secretary Donna DeRight said.

Dunaway, 53, faces at least six opponents for the mayor's office in the May 14 municipal election. Candidates may file applications through Monday to campaign for the next two-year term as mayor or as one of four Amarillo city commissioners.

Dunaway withdrew and refiled her application Feb. 25 using her chosen name as a nickname in parenthesis.

The Secretary of State's Office on Wednesday deemed the nickname unacceptable because it contains a space.

DeRight said Dunaway has two options:

• To avoid a second refiling, Dunaway could simply mark out the name "Sandra Dunn" in parenthesis on her current application and run as "F.E. Dunaway."

• Or she can withdraw again and file a third application, specifying her ballot name as "F.E. (SandraDunn) Dunaway."

In an interview earlier on Wednesday, Dunaway said, "As long as Sandra Dunn's on there, that's all I care about."

Legal name changes must be approved in court. Dunaway said she intends to pursue that option but did not before deciding to run for mayor.

"Part of the process of transitioning (gender) is a name change," she said.

"Very seldom does a person have the opportunity to end one name and start the new name in a day. There are always things that come into play, like the driver's license and Social Security."

Dunaway said she now lives round the clock as Sandra Dunn.

However, in interviews with the Amarillo Globe-News in the past month for a story unrelated to city politics, Dunaway used her legal name rather than Sandra Dunn.

Dunaway said she doesn't worry that the ballot name question will cause difficulty for her campaign.

The name Sandra Dunn "has already been publicized by the Globe-News, people have already seen it and people have responded to it," she said.

"Those people who are not for me will not vote for me, no matter what I do or say," she said. "Those who are undecided, we won't know until they step into the booth to vote."

Texas voters might be familiar with the election code's ballot nickname options due to the 2006 run for governor by Kinky Friedman, a well-known author, singer and songwriter.

Friedman's name on the statewide general election ballot was listed as Richard "Kinky" Friedman, Keith said.