Almost every female I’ve been close to has expressed distaste for her given name. Many adopt their middle name or some completely different name rather than keep the one their parents gave them. I cannot see anything objectionable in the offending names, myself. (Emily, Jessica, Heather, Katrina are some examples.)
So here’s a poll.
The Katrina one I get.
I’m female and I don’t hate my given name (Carol). I don’t love it either - I wish my parents had named me Caroline rather than just plain Carol. I don’t feel strongly enough about this to change it, and I don’t like being addressed as Caroline because that actually isn’t my name.
FWIW, I don’t have a single female friend who goes by anything other than her given name, and none have expressed strong feelings of dislike for their given name.
Perhaps I just attract the type. 
(One of the females in question is my mom, so I don’t actually put it beyond possibility that having been raised by a self’s-name-hating mom, I ended up having some personality traits that somehow are a natural fit for friendship with self’s-name-hating women in general. Who knows.)
BTW the “katrina” entry, I just realized, was a mistake. She calls herself Katrina. The name she was given, which she hates, is Cindy.
Just clearing the record there…
Female and don’t hate it, but I was at least twenty before I decided that I didn’t hate it. It certainly wouldn’t be my first choice.
So far I’m the only guy who hates my own name: Jason. I appreciate some nicknames for my name but not my given.
Female, I don’t hate my name but I don’t like it. It’s kind of dated, like the name of a Kansas farmwife in the 1930’s. And I’ve never met another girl with my name! (though there’s an important lady in this city with my first AND last name and I get the occasional phone call from people thinking I’m her. Sadly, I’m not.)
I like my given name. There are plenty of dimunitive forms I could use, but I’ve prefered the full form since middle school. Never liked my middle name and I changed it to my mother’s maiden name in high school. My father almost made an ass of himself at graduation because he thought they screwed up my name. :smack: Thus confirming that my parents’ really will sign anything put in front of them without reading it.
I said “hate it,” though that’s a bit strong. I dislike it because it sounds like a cheerleader, or something out of Petticoat Junction, and I’m not that type. I’ve always said that if I were in a position to move somewhere completely different and “start over,” I’d go by my initials. They’re a lot sharper. But I’m not the type who could pull that off with people I already know.
And I wish more people would consider, when they name their children, that the baby will grow up and be an adult for much longer than it will be their cute li’l bundle of joy. I like the idea of choosing a name as if it’s going to preceded by “Chief Justice.”
I like my name (Shannon), but it sounds strange when I think about it too much. Kind of like Ted repeating the word “ball” on HiMYM. Shannon is certainly a lot nicer than any of my mom’s other choices!
I don’t hate my name but I don’t like it either. It doesn’t fit with me at all, and it’s spelled somewhat oddly (though the “normal” spelling looks even weirder with my last name). Worse, I absolutely despise my middle name. So I go by a nickname among my friends, and fantasize about changing my real name to something else. I doubt I will, though–too much trouble.
I was going to make a post about this recently and forgot. Growing up I didn’t know any girls who didn’t want to change their names. In fact, we all pretty much had names all picked out.
“Hate” is way too strong, but that’s what I chose because I don’t like it. I’m male. The parts of my name are clunky when put together, and - stupid though it sounds - I think my first name vaguely sounds like that of a troublemaker. 
Huh. I kind of like my name, and always have.
I love my name. Loooooooooooooooove. It’s pretty, and it suits me. It’s the single best parenting decision my parents made.
It’s much more than “not hating” my name. I love my name! I have always insisted being called by my full first name and not a nickname.
Elizabeth Anne
I love the combination of my first and middle names. They sound elegant when spoken. They look pretty when written.
Male, don’t like my name. Hate’s too strong a word I think.
As for female names, I’ve always thought that women typically get better names than men. More stylish, more melodious, more interesting. Clarissa, Alexandra, Annette, Gloria - as opposed to Bob, Ted, Fred.
Why is your middle name not your given name?
I go by my middle name. It’s not because I hate my first name, it’s because that’s what my parents always called me, and what everybody has always called me.
I don’t really know why they decided to call me by my middle name, but they did. If someone says my first name I will very likely not answer, unless it’s a cop (it’s the name on my driver’s license–well, it’s the first name on my driver’s license, they’re all there). It’s not that I hate it.
As I’ve posted in the past, I love my name–it’s the level of thought that went into it, and the fact that it’s both different, and yet common enough not to seem weird.
I’ve had to bite my tongue several times not to share my actual name on here. When I’ve seen it typed out her (referring to someone else), it always makes me smile.
Don’t hate it, don’t love it. It’s okay. (It’s Laura btw).