I do insist on a K! And I also prefer
Katharine to
Katherine, which strikes me as an uncomfortable French-Greek hybrid. But I'd rather have
Catherine than
Kathryn.
Nicknames are probably inevitable - I do know one
Catherine who accepts nothing less, but she's a very unusual person all round.
Kathy is dated and
Kate has been too popular for too long, so fortunately there's
Kitty to cheer me up. And, indeed, I once had a
Catherine cat who was known as
Katie the
Kitty and sometimes as
Kitty; I used the C spelling for her because it contains the word 'cat' and can also be pronounced without the 'th' blend, as it is in French. Cat-er-een.