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My fave form is Pernilla, but that's probably because this is the only form I've seen in real life.

It reminds me of either a brand of gasoline or the mosquito-repelling candles (citronella?). Yeah, not so much.

When I hear Petronilla, I think of the American South, circa late 19th-century and Victorian England. I've spent a lot of time going through old newspapers on microfiche/internet doing family research with my mom and I saw that name a lot more than I expected to when researching those locations in that time period. Although, the version I saw the most was Petronella, and that's the version I prefer.

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eta: I actually have several ancestors with this name too lol There's a few Petronella's, one Petronilla, and a few Petronille's.

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I think it's pretty but it strikes me as very old-fashioned. I like (well, love lol) a lot of old-fashioned names but Petronella feels like one of those that would be hard to revitalize. It feels very quirky, in a good way. I don't like how closely it resembles petrol in sound. Maybe that's not as much of a problem in the US, but elsewhere it could be weird. But there are a lot of cute possible nicknames :)

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This message was edited 2/26/2011, 9:37 AM

I think it sounds like the name of a 50's brand of cooking oil, or gasoline: Petronilla! Sorry, but I just don't like it.

It's not my style. I think I slightly prefer Petronella.