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I've never met a Valentin but I'd think it was cool. Val is a simple nickname and Valentin definitely fits "French and romantic".

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But I think the paperwork will only be more confusing if you keep Amelie. It's a girly name and people will be confused, even if it's just on paper. Émile is somewhat similar, masculine, and French. Amal / Amel is also a boys name but with a different origin.
My sister is trans and she wanted to keep her birth name at first, but it just influenced everyone to call her by the wrong pronouns until she changed it. Even if it's just on paper and you don't go by it, people will be reading it out loud in various situations and it will be confusing. The change is not that hard, you'll already be going through the legal hassle of changing your first name and your gender marker, so might as well get it over with and change the first name too. People change their names all the time; you just need to carry a bit of extra paperwork to prove you're the same person as before but it's worth it.
If you want to keep Amelie for sentimental reasons, maybe use it as a second middle name or part of a hyphenated thing (like how Jean-Marie is a French boys name but Marie is a girl name by itself. I know Marie is kind of a special case but it could still work).

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I also like these French names:
Achille
Alexandre
Antoine
Armand
Aurélien
Bastien
Célestin
Christophe
Corentin (Coren for short)
Cyprien
Damien
Émilien (also similar to Amelie)
Florian
Gerard
Isidore
Julien
Laurent
Léandre
Léonide (Léo)
Lucien
Marcel
Matéo
Matthias
Nicodème (Nico)
Olivier
Pascal
Philippe
Raphaël
Reynaud
Sébastien
Séverin
Sylvain
Théophile (Theo)
Thibaut
Valérian
Vespasien
Vincent

This message was edited 8/12/2023, 11:00 PM