It's my middle name, and before I got a *sense* of it and the way it was perceived, I liked it. I thought it was pretty. I really like
Katherine and its variants in general. So I naturally liked it. But when I realized how trendy it was and how many people were called it I started to resent it. My sister's MN is
Grace, so I don't think my parents were particularly inventive on the MN front. But in its essence I like it. It's a pretty name. It just doesn't have a great vibe atm and will soon be horribly, horribly dated. It flows well with my FN and LN too, I think.
Caitlin is the only spelling I really like - I can tolerate
Katelynn as a composite of
Kate and
Lynn, but it's NMS at all, and I dislike any alternative spellings of
Caitlin as
Caitlin.
I have a friend whose name is
Caitlin, and they go by Caitie with their family, and usually
Cait or
Caitlin with friends. To those to whom they're out as non-binary, they're Cai/Kai. I also have another friend whose sister is
Caitlin "Caitie". My aunt is
Cait (just
Cait). She was born
Kate but when my parents named me she really liked
Caitlin and so she changed the spelling.
I don't like nicknames for
Caitlin for some reason. I guess it's because it's my MN and so it feels like middle names Aren't Allowed. If I had to choose,
Cait.
Cai feels right for the person I call
Cai, but not as a general nickname. I hate Caitie. Weird, because I quite like
Katy for
Katherine or
Kathleen or whatever.
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"That cynicism you refer to I acquired the day I discovered I was different from little boys."