Ok, I originally wanted a nice pretty name, and for years fancied the name 'Linda'. But then I figured phonetically, 'Lynn' and 'Linda' is fairly close and felt we should have more variety. There was also someone at work named 'Lynda', and I didn't want to copy. So my next favorite choice was 'Michelle'. But one of my best friend's wife's name is that, and well, that'd be too weird. So I had to brainstorm a little bit.
My parents gave all their children 4 letter names. (I'm not sure what that says about their views on child rearing). I love my family and my parents are great people, and I'd like to follow that family tradition.
A natural idea is to just make an anagram of Neal, which gave me Lena and possible Lean. Of course, Lean really needs another 'n' to be correct, and wouldn't be 4 letters anymore. I do like the sound of Leann better though, so if I break that up into 'Lena Ann', I pick up a middle name already, and fit the 4 letter pattern. Then I can just use the nickname 'Leann' as it's a contraction of Lena Ann. I'm very happy with it.
