Gwendolyn vs Gwen (Gweek, a close 3rd)

Anybody out there whose parent(s) named them something and then decided to shorten it?  I'm one of those kids.  I've gone through half a dozen names in my lifetime.  And never been married.  Since you might steal my identity, I'm going to keep the one's you don't know a secret.  *wink*

Before I turned 21 I told people I was going to switch over to being called "Gwendolyn" on my 21st birthday (mostly because I suffered from a pretentious disease that year).  My friends laughed it off (they knew about the "p" bug). 

But now I'm serious!  Gwendolyn is a magic-tastic name and it's like a fine wine sitting up on a shelf waiting to be taken down and drank.

Gwen is much less of a mouthful, a lot more accessible and people can spell it now (thanks, Gwen S!).  Didn't use to be that way.  Quinn, Glen, Guen, Quen, even Qwen is how I've seen it spelled.  Qwen!?!  Hello!  Nothing comes after Q but "u" people (except in a few amazing cases--and, fast fact, I've been to the very suq pictured there.) (incredible.  a wiki entry on "q" followed by something other than "u") (what will they think of next?!).

I'm only writing this post to distract myself from myself so, I'm done now.  Gwen it is.  Unless someone has an idea for another name altogether.  With recent nicknames like Gweek and Gweebs cropping up, I don't think I'll be changing it anytime soon, but if you win the re-naming competition, you get something cool.