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Overall, I like Pamela. It's a dated name, in that it was popular in the fifties and sixties and it's not popular now, but it's one of the better dated names. Coined by a sixteenth century poet, the title of the first ever novel written in English--great literary associations. Old, classic, all that.

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It's my youngest sister's name, so that's my primary association. I've always that that it was the best of the five first names that my mom got to bestow. I think I would always prefer to have it as a first name....it seems too substantial to me to be a middle name.

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Now the downside---my sister is always called Pam, never Pamela. As a child she was called Pammy. I'm not nuts about those nicknames.

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I knew another Pamela, the daughter of a friend, who would be twenty-five now. She was only occasionally called Pam--usually she was called Pamela, so I don't think that the nickname is inevitable.