My best friend is
Deborah. She used to hate her name because our teachers in elementary school always called her
Debbie, which she despised. She preferred to just be
Deborah, or
Deb if she needed a nickname.
By the time we got to high school, she'd realized that she was going to be nicknamed, and (to avoid
Debbie at all costs) just called herself
Deb. I think the nickname grew on her though... she likes to sign her name deb (all lowercase) because she likes the symmetry... and her closest friends from college call her bed sometimes because of that.
Her middle name is
Ann.
I've always though
Devorah was a funny name (even though it's my friend's Hebrew name) because I once had a Hebrew school teacher who we called Morah
Devorah. (Morah is the Hebrew word for teacher.) I just thought the rhyming thing was hilarious. At times, I'd look at her and wonder how to take her seriously.