Katherine. Go on, what's wrong with Katherine that my parents are so 'meh'??

[CaptainKarvol]

It's not a bad name is it?

They were pretty negative about DS's name too. They are usually great parents, but they just weem to be incapable of being nice about the names I give my children. Is it so bloody hard to say 'that's nice' and bloody well smile???

Rant.

oops or Cas as MamaGs sister.

Not keen on Kitty

would spell it Catherine and have Cat / Cate as NN

also love Caitlin ( NN Cait / Caitie)

I love Katherine/Catherine.
A future child would very possibly be one.
Classy, timeless, elegant. What's not to like?

I think squeaver may have hit the nail on the head. They were probably expeting your children to be named after family members. I know mine were and so were the ILs, which is why they were not involved in any discussions about names
Beautiful classical name. Call your children by the names you like, because you will never be able to keep everyone happy on this one.

I have a sister called Katherine. It is a nice name and I love Kit and Kitty too.

I like it with a K or C. DD1's middle name is Catherine

Wow, I expected this to be a lone post by me! Thank you all for taking the time to reply

I am mostly calling DD Kitten or Kit-kat at the mo, but like a lot of the shortnings, all except Kath and Kathy really, and they're not bad, just a bit to '80's for me.

I have no idea what my parents want. They were pretty good name pickers themselves - mine was 20 years ahead of the curve with girls names, my brother's hit the 'holy grail' of a familiar-but-not-popular boy's name, so I just feel they are disappointed in me (again!). DS has my dad's name as a middle, and that didn't seem to go down a storm either. No pleasing them .

On the plus side, DH's family and my brother were lovely about it. It's just that infantile need I have to please my parents...

There is nothing wrong with Katherine. It's my dd1's name, and it is lovely. She's 9.

To us, she has always been Katherine, but has more recently been called Kathy by her friends and is asking for that at home now so I am doing my best!

One of the reasons we chose it was the variety of options available to has as she got older, but Katherine is still a good 'barrister' name if she ever needs it!

Weegiemum, that's really funny you saying that about a "barrister" name as that's what dh said about both dd1 (Katharyn) and dd3 (Elizabeth) - they both have lots of various options for shortening but the full names are good for barristers [no pressure then dd1 or dd3 !] DD1s friends have taken to calling her Kathy at school, but I just don't "see" her as a Kathy. She likes it though, and I suppose that's the main thing!