why is it so important ...
For you to like the name? Either you like a name or you don't, that's all there is to it. You don't have to like the name or even stop despising it. Obviously you should not let on to people named Katie or with kids named Katie that you don't like the name, but if you have to be told that, you've got bigger problems.
I don't like the name Katie either. It's cutesy and babyish and simpery. I picture some pudgy little girl with fat pink chipmunk cheeks and a piggy little freckled nose and eyes too close together, who's always giggling and babbling like a baby.
Kate is much better, but has a rather prissy, English-girls'-boarding-school vibe.
"It's one thing to be open-minded and quite another to be so open-minded your brains fall out."--Dear Abby
"Let other people push you around, and you deserve whatever bad things happen after that."--Lauren Bacall