Now I don’t know if you noticed, but J.K. Rowling gives her characters some pretty goofy sounding names sometimes. Believe it or not, there’s a reason for that. Rowling has this very Dickens-like style when it comes to naming her characters. Which makes sense because Dickens was actually one of her inspirations. I don’t think that any author just names their characters without thinking, but Rowling in particular has a pretty clear reasoning behind all of her character names. As a little kid reading the series, obviously, I didn’t really see a lot of the cool things that Rowling was foreshadowing with these character names, but now that I’m a smarty-pants English major, I’ve come to appreciate the true cleverness behind it all. So I’ve come up with a list of my seven (because seven is the most magically powerful number!) favorites to show the awesomeness that lies in these characters names.
Remus Lupin: Looking back on it now, dear old Lupin’s name seems to be the most obvious. “Lupus” means wolf so if you know anything about biology, it’s pretty easy to guess what Lupin’s little secret is.
Sirius Black: “Sirius” is the name of the brightest star in the sky. So in that way, it seems a bit strange for the name of an escaped prisoner of Azkaban. But because we know this little tidbit of information about the meaning of Sirius’s name, we may also question whether or not the rumors about him as a murderer are true since light is often a symbol of goodness and according to this definition, Sirius has about as much light as you can get. Similarly to Lupin’s name, Sirius’s name also clues us in to his animalistic form as Sirius is known as the “Dog Star” because it is part of the constellation “Canis Major.”
Dolores Umbridge: Aside from the fact that Umbridge’s name already sounds unpleasant, the word “umbrage” actually means displeasure. So it’s no surprise that Umbridge is as horrible as she is.
Sybill Trewlaney: “Sybil” was actually a seer from Greek mythology. This obviously makes perfect sense based on Trewlaney’s profession, but it also clues the reader into the fact that she may not be just a fraud like Harry, Ron, and Hermione often think. And of course, in the end she happens to have made one of the most important prophecies of all time, concerning Voldemort and Harry.
Voldemort: Voldemort’s name is actually taken from a French phrase, "Vol de mort," which means “to flee from death.” Voldemort’s main goal in the series is to ensure his invincibility, stretching his soul to its very limits all so that he can avoid death. So really this choice of name is perfect. According to J.K. Rowling, the “t” is Voldemort is supposed to be silent…but we’ll talk some more about that later…
Argus Filch: Okay, so this one is actually my favorite because I JUST discovered why it is the way it is. I mean, I already knew what “filch” meant. That on its own is brilliant because Filch is always “filching” illegal items from students and making life hell for them because of it. And then “Argus” it turns out is actually the name of a dude from Greek mythology who had eyes everywhere on his body. That’s just so perfect. Because Filch is totally the “eyes” of the castle, always searching for any troublemakers to punish. I wish I could say that I stumbled upon this one through my intense study of Greek myths, but really I discovered it through Percy Jackson and the Olympians…STILL THOUGH…awesome.
Draco Malfoy: My interpretation of this one is gonna be a little goofy compared to the rest. The rest are like indisputable, but I have some kind of weird ideas about what Draco’s name might be referring to. Now, I know that “Draco” means “dragon” in Latin. But I also know that the Hogwarts motto is, “Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus,” which of course means, “Never tickle a sleeping dragon.” Gotta love the whimsy and charm of Harry Potter. So here’s what I’m thinking; Rowling could have given Draco any name that she wanted…but she chose to give him a name that is actually referenced in the school motto itself. Now this may seem far-fetched, but I take this to mean that rather than never “tickling” Draco specifically, it means that Draco is not someone to be messed with. I mean, he turns out to be kind of a pussy, but he definitely puts on this air as if he owns Hogwarts and that if someone messes with him they’ll pay for it…which they most likely will because he’ll tell Luscious Lucius about it and lord knows that Luscious Lucius Malfoy has got mad game with the bitches. Right, so there’s that rant. Then there’s the last name. “Mal” means bad…so there you go.
So those are my interpretations of some HP character names. Now that I’m on the subject of names, I have some questions to pose about them. You know how I said before that Rowling says the “t” in Voldemort isn’t supposed to be pronounced? Well, I’m pretty sure that every time I hear her say Voldemort, she pronounces the “t.” So I wonder, did she just start saying it to conform to what her fans had interpreted it as? Because that is very very unusual for her. Personally, I believe that once an author has published a book, that book now belongs to the public – the author has some credit in the book’s overall meaning, but it is up to the reader to dissect and interpret different aspects and meaning of the text because everybody gets something different out of every reading. But J.K. Rowling generally seems to disagree with this. Like, when she told us all that Dumbledore was gay. I mean, I can see why someone might interpret that from his mannerisms and such, but nowhere does the author specifically say that he is gay and I don’t think that this has to be universally accepted as a truth because of that reason.
Anyway, aside from the Voldemort thing, she seems to be like this with names most of the time too. For instance, she has said that Lily’s (as in Harry’s child, Lily) middle name is Luna. Now, I happen to think that is adorable and wonderful and perfect…but it doesn’t say anywhere in the book that her middle name is Luna, so if anything that seems more like a fanfictiony type thing to claim. I mean, we have to accept that Albus Severus is Harry’s son’s actual name because it’s written in the book. But the book says nothing about Lily Luna. There’s also the whole case of the character “John” Dawlish. Again, nowhere in any of the books is Dawlish ever referred by his first name, but Rowling has said that she eventually named him “John” due to the enthusiastic reaction to the character by The Leaky Cauldron’s site contributor, John Noe. I think John Noe is a swell guy and that Dawlish is a great character and everything, (I’ll definitely need to write a blog about Dawlish sometime because his joke of a character is sort of awesome) but I’m sort of not sure if J.K. Rowling has the right to give names to these characters after the fact. I pretty much feel this way about all the futures of characters after the books as well – I mean, in my head Neville and Luna love each other forever and live happily together in a field of nargles, so why does J.K. Rowling get to discount that by saying that Neville marries Hannah Abbott! If she really wanted that to be a solid fact of the books she would have included it in the books!
I’m a little befuddled here. Part of me thinks that J.K. Rowling is totally clever and awesome for her character names, but then part of me is also confused about why she would try to name certain characters after the fact. I mean, I understand that she’s intensely connected to these characters so it only makes sense for her to imagine their lives outside of what is written, but I’m just surprised that this is something she feels like she has to share with the public. I don’t know. It’s just puzzling to me because obviously she stopped consulting an editor about size by the time book four came around so if she really wanted these names to exist, why didn’t she just include them in the books? I happen to be a fan of most of her name choices after the fact, but I just wish she had actually written them in the books so they could be truly validated.
All right, that last bit was kind of a convoluted rant, but oh well.
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