About Abby Sandel

Whether you're naming a baby, or just all about names, you've come to the right place! Appellation Mountain is a haven for lovers of obscure gems and enduring classics alike.

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18 Comments

  1. Hi, my name is Katrina. Like the hurricane. I was born in 1993, so I did come first.

    When I was born, my family intended on calling me Katie for short. That didn’t stick, I’m not a Katie. My close family and friends now call me Trina. I was 12 years old when the historic hurricane hit, being in upper US I was far away from the devastation. Still, in middle school I told a lot of inappropriate jokes. “Oh I hear you blow hard.”

    Gross. So after that I decided to go by Kat instead. It was cute and suited teenage me. But, I went back to introducing myself as Katrina by college.

    Kat, Katie, Trina. Pretty good nickname potential. My mother picked my name right away, there were no alternatives. I choose to still love my name.

    To those that survived the horrible disaster and all that happened afterwards, I’m sorry? Neither I nor any of the other Katrina’s in the world had anything to do with that. Because of the unique circumstance with our name, a lot of Katrina’s are empathetic. We have also developed a wicked sense of humor to counteract the treatment we receive for our name.

  2. Abby, could this entry for Katrina be moved up the line to get fixed, please? I’m seriously considering it for a middle name (should we ever have another girl), and I would love to read what you’ve written about it. I’ve been in love with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow since I was a little girl, but then there is the hurricane. Could it be sidestepped in the middle?

  3. Katrina is the US version of “Catriona” (which can be pronounced correctly “Ka-TREE-o-na” if using the Gaelic pronunciation, or “Ka-tree-OH-na” is also used, as well as the same pronunciation as “Katrina”.

    We named our daughter Catriona, pronounced the Gaelic way. She was born in 2009 and to be honest we NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT the storm. No, we are not from the States but that doesnt really totally explain it…. we both were well aware of the Hurricane when it happened and all the aftermath and ongoing stories, so its strange we didn’t think of it. We just thought it was a nice name…we noticed it from two women athletes – Canadian multi-gold medalist Catriona Le May and Scottish champion golfer Catriona Matthews. We also reckoned a bonus for Catriona, when she gets older she can decide for herself what her “right” pronunciation should be :>) She can even be “Trina” or “Kitty” (ugh…) or whatever other derivatives that are known from “Catriona”. I mean, I wish I could have been given a broad spectrum to choose from for my own name! LOL

    We love it, but it is hard for her pronounce herself. She’s started to call herself “Nina”…that may stick?

    I mention this here since there is not a separate listing for “Catriona”.