Wanted to keep my initials but didn't like ANY female names associated with them enough.
So I've had to move them both, and now have two middle names, with Alexis added on the front. I like it because I just always did, it's totally neutral in its shortened form, it's not ridiculous - I don't stumble across it with discomfort. My mother approved it which was vital to me, and I asked her outright to simply decide and tell me what to do with the letter J from one of my middle names. Only fair - she would've been choosing it at the time, not me.
Importantly, it's not out of place for my generation, or (maybe even more crucially for an Englishwoman) for my social background. One or either of those things being off key seems like a neon siren light flashing.
And yet it's just off key enough to have a slightly tacky ring to it which I like - I checked, and Alexis Carrington was introduced as a Dynasty character in 1981, so it's entirely plausible to anyone who makes the link with the pop culture of the 80's that it came from that. A friend of mine is called Charlene, and her mother named her after Charlene Tilton - prominently displayed for much of the decade in the credits of Dallas, so kind of the same idea.
I toyed with 'Annabelle' because I love it, but it really doesn't suit me, despite being both generation and background congruent, and likewise for a couple of others.
There were certain names I had thought I'd like to use if I had a daughter, which I ran through but realized were completely off limits - I'm still annoyed with my sister for using one of the names on my list of top boys names as a middle name for my nephew.
