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I have always loved this name. In high school, when I was taking a class in short stories, we were assigned to write a short story ourselves. I set mine in ancient Rome, and named one of the characters Lavinia. I got a B on the story, by the way, but that was only because I handed it in one day late. Otherwise, it would have been an A. The teacher had a policy of dropping you a grade for every day you were late handing in an assignment.

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Anyhoo. Yes, I love this name, but I don't think that I'd ever use it because of the possible nickname Vinny, which I hate. I'm always alert to possible nicknames, and they ruin quite a few names for me.

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I have known just one Lavinia, an African-American girl I knew in college. Come to think of it, I don't recall that she was ever called Vinny, but still, the possibility would prevent me from ever using the name.