Deirdre is OK; I've heard Deardree and Deardray, which rather puts me off. I imagine
Deirdre would spend her whole life explaining, correcting, doing it again ...
Debra is awful: I'd expect her to have a sister named Deknickers and a brother, Desocks or maybe Dejock.
Deborah is a very good name, but only in full. All the nns are off-putting, maybe not
Deb, though it isn't interesting, but
Debby is fine for the under-fives only. And where I live, Afrikaans speakers shorten
Deborah to Borrie, which is their word for turmeric. A risk not worth taking.
ETA I've just remembered that my mother had a friend whom she'd known for years as
Dora. To her surprise, she found that
Dora was a family nickname for her friend's actual name:
Deborah! Perhaps they pronounced it deBOREuh?
This message was edited 3/28/2023, 6:09 AM