Hahaha, I love that it's implied that everyone hates these, like "which of these do you hate slightly less?"
Kristina is my middle name. I used to hate it, but it's grown on me and now I'm fond of it. I was looking at a list of romance authors a few days ago and one of them was a Kristina-something, and it was actually very refreshing to see it. The cold spiky letters were cool and clear in a nice way, for that brief moment. It's a chilly name though, I agree, not really approachable.
Krystal is fun in a neon-bubblegum 80s kinda way. I think I appreciate
Krystal slightly more than
Kristina. In terms of
Crystal variations,
Krystal is nice, it seems to suit itself, if that makes sense. It has a satisfying balance to it, even if that balance is on the flaky side - it's not
Crystal, which is almost too blunt, too obviously a Thing, like naming someone Water or Seed. Yet it's not overly outlandish, it's not Cristall or Kristle or
Chrystal or whatever fantasies people come up with. It removes the cry- from
Crystal and turns it from a word into a name, and that's satisfying.