I used to hate my name, but it had nothing to do with traumas. It was just that everyone, even English teachers, would mispronounce it. The sentence I have said more times than anything else I've ever said is "it's not Helen, it's Helene." Hel-EEn. Now I appreciate my name. Like someone else said, it was one of the nice things my parents did for me, to give me a pretty and traditional name, as well as a meaningful name. It was my favorite grandma's middle name and a more distant (Italian) ancestor's first name. It's a really nice name, but it seems that some people around here in southwestern Minnesota think I made it up or something. Especially since my initials are H.H. but it's my real name! It's what's on my birth certificate! They're all mostly Norwegian Americans around here (no offense, Tyra) and don't know that it's a quite common French and German first name for girls, and obviously for some Italians, since that's who I was named after.. In fact, I came across my name in a textbook for a class for the first time in college when I took German. Never had that experience before, lol.