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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.

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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