Meaning of names in Harry Potter

[conuly]

General flower names: 
These are names like Lily, Petunia, Myrtle, Fleur, Olive, Lavendar, Pansy.... They seem to indicate that this is a semi-important female person who isn't important enough to be given a full description, ever. Olive is the exception, she's just the girl who found Myrtle dead.

Quirrel: 
Squirrel. Refers to his personality until we found out that he was possessed. It may also refer to his relationship to Voldemort, who tends to be snakish.

Remus Lupin: 
Remus was Romulus' twin brother who suckled from a she-wolf with him. Lupin is obviously related to lupus, wolf. Lupus is also a disease of the immune system, where the body literally attacks itself.

Sirius Black: 
Sirius is the Dog Star, and the faithful dog of the hunter Orion. The "dog days of summer" in August, when it's very hot and muggy, were attributed to the Dog Star being high in the sky. Black means Black. Wow. A faithful black dog. Whoda thunk?

Voldemort: 
Okay, we know that this is part of an anagram. Please note that mort is related to the words mortal and mortgage, and refers to death.

Tom Riddle: 
Well, he was refered to as "He-who-must-not-be-named" because, of course "before he was Voldemort he could be freely named". It's a bit of a... um... conundrum? Puzzle? Enigma?

Sibyl Trelawny: 
Sibyl is a word for a Greek prophetess. One of her ancestors was a famous Seer named Cassandra, who was a specific (and cursed) seer in Greek mythology.

Minerva McGonagall: 
Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, and defensive war. And also weaving. Her Greek name is Athene or Athena. Her symbol is the owl, and the olive is sacred to her.

Severus Snape: 
Oh, come on! He's severe. That's all there is to it. And possibly also snivelly, but that's another issue.

Viktor Krum: 
Viktor is a victor. Apparently. Even though he technically lost in every game we've seen him in. I doubt that makes Ron very happy, though.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore:
Albus means white, like his hair and (presumably) as the opposite of dark. Wulfric means, apparently, wizard. And Percival was a knight in King Arthur's (like dad Weasley, if you wanna get strange) court.

Percy Weasley:
Okay, I doubt that the Percival in general means much, but maybe he was named after Dumbledore?

Well, I'm bored now. I may make a new list later.

Comments

[jean-prouvaire.livejournal.com]

Septimus Severus was also a Roman emperor; the Severan Dynasty was, I think, one of the last dynasties, if not the last, of emperors before the Empire finally fell.

He was uber-strict, had a tendency to play favorites and nobody liked him except for the people he favored.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I love dissecting names. Very nifty. And I think it's worth mentioning that Percy is one of my favorite names ever (I named my rat Percy, though it's short for Persephone).

Also, Severus Snape is a good evil-sounding name. Or at least cruel-sounding? Names with sibilants can be very sinister. Mmm. Sibilants.

[conuly]

Ooh, thanks.

[staircase-wit.livejournal.com]

Did you mean anagram when you said "acronym?"

If you did men acronym, what is Voldemort an acronym for?

[conuly]

It's an acronym for... ah...

Very Old, Loud, Dumb, and Energetic Mortician with Orange Rhino Teeth

*goes to fix that*

[staircase-wit.livejournal.com]

Explains a lot... I've only watched the movies, myself... and not even the third one, yet.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Pointing out that "sever" is also a verb, and it applies to a couple of the plotlines focussing on Prof. Snape. (Which is awfully close to the word "snipe" too, which makes sense, seeing as that's all he does to Harry the whole time he's in class.)

[conuly]

I don't know how I missed the sever bit. I did know about Snape, but since I know that's why she made up the name (as in, I read it in an interviewtypething somewhere) I didn't feel like including it.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

I am always vaguely annoyed by character names that are flamingly obvious like Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. It bugs the shit out of me. (Not literally, don't worry.) How in hell did their parents know that Remus would be bitten by a werewolf, and that Sirius would become a dog animagus. Grrrrr.

[phibby.livejournal.com]

Ah! Septimius Severus! I remember I did a mini-report on him two years ago for my world history class as part of a larger Roman empire project. I chose him just because of the name and how it related to Harry Potter. :)

One bit of history that I clearly remember really showed him to be a very cruel and ruthless man. Clodius Albinus, a contender for the throne after Commodus (the emperor around when Severus came to Rome and made his way up to consul and then governor) was killed, thought himself Severus' successor (Severus' troops had hailed him emperor, I believe). After Severus defeated Niger, another contender for the throne, therefore making his presence in Rome stronger, he threw Albinus a curve ball by declaring one of his sons successor instead. Albinus' troops hailed him emperor, and now the two were basically going to have a face-off in Gaul. If I recall correctly, it was a pretty close battle, but Severus won. Albinus killed himself to escape a horrible execution at Severus' hands.

Severus wasn't finished with Albinus yet, though. He decided to have Albinus' corpse stripped, and he trampled it under his horse. He then cut off Albinus' head, sent it back to Rome, and had his body, along with the bodies of his wife and children, hurled into the Rhine River. Because beating him in battle wasn't quite enough.

Sounds like quite the emperor, eh? Not sure if I'd say Snape's that cruel, but he's up there all right.

For another random trivia fact, there was another emperor named Severus Alexander. He became emperor about eleven (I think?) years after Septimius Severus, but he was actually very peaceful and religious. I remember he built a lot of libraries and temples especially. Seems the exact opposite of Septimius.

There was another emperor who went by Flavius Severus, but I'm not sure he was very influential or noteworthy.

The name's got a lot of history, apparently. :)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Maybe they just liked the names, and the rest was Providence of some such. I mean, I doubt that all the people who name their children "Nemo" after that fish movie intend for their children to be a "nobody", and yet, I'm sure some of them will be.

Since the animagus thing is dependant on the person's character, maybe Sirius had such a faithful puppy look about him right when he was born that they just looked at him and went "Wow... Sirius is the name for him." Or it's *ta-daa* tradition to name kids after stars in the Black household, and Sirius hadn't been used before. Who knows...

Wulfric, by the way, literally means "wolf-king". I don't want to know whether that as anything to do with wereweolves...

[joeymew.livejournal.com]

Can you think up any origin for the name Terry Boot? Other then that it's a cut of pants?

[eofs.livejournal.com]

A few thoughts...

Voldemort means flight of death (vol de mort) in French. I have also seen people say it is derived from Latin, flight from death iirc, but I don't see why she would derive it from Latin and then not notice it meant something in French.

Fleur Delacour by the way, is flower of the court (though many people mistranslate it to heart not court, but that's coeur.)

Regalus is a star too isn't it? Sirius, Regalus, Andromeda, Bellatrix erm... err... Well that's four in roughly the same family anyway ;0)

Dumbledore means bumblebee, though I don't think that impacts upon his character at all as I know it's just a name Rowling liked ;0)

I think there is significance in Percival, but not because he shares it with Dumbledore. There is a tendancy amongst the Weasleys to have regal names - Arthur (who incidently fought the Roman emporer Lucius,) William, Charles, George, Frederick, Guinevre... The only one I can't directly connect to royalty in Ronald, but I know little about pre 10th century history in England. Maybe one of them will call a son Ethelred, after Ethelred the Unready, undoubtedly the best king name ever :0D

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

That honestly does bug me though. "Honey, our last name's Lupin and our son turned out to be a werewolf before he hit ten! If we have any more kids, maybe we should change our last name?"

I think if the books stayed cutesy like the first book, it'd be a little less... I can't think of the word. All I can put in there is "mrph."

[conuly]

Well, it rhymes with "really cute"...

[hommedeterre.livejournal.com]

It's an anagram:

Tom Marvolo Riddle =
I Am Lord Voldemor

[hommedeterre.livejournal.com]

VoldemorT...

[meteorie.livejournal.com]

There was a real person named Lord Voldemort, back in the middle ages.. actually, he was Lord Voldermortist, but close enough, eh? And don't forget Argus Flich.. Argus is a legendary monster with a hundred eyes.

[meteorie.livejournal.com]

Regalus is a star too isn't it? Sirius, Regalus, Andromeda, Bellatrix erm... err... Well that's four in roughly the same family anyway ;0)

Yeah.. Narcissa is the odd ball in the family I guess.. I think JKR thought of her name first, and just didn't want to change it.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I'd not thought of it before, but to filch is to steal, and he's certainly known for confiscating things. Which combines very aptly with Argus really. A watchman with a tendancy to take things.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, it's Lord Kass from NC ..


Remus Lupin (more):
The scientific name for wolf is "lupis" .. Lupin, Lupis, close enough.

[meteorie.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I didn't know about Filch at all. He really has a perfect name.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

It's an English term, I wouldn't really expect you to ;0)

A thought on Tom Riddle - I don't think there's too much significance in his name. I suspect that it was a case of "what name can I make out of something something Lord Voldemort" The fact that Riddle is a good surname is nice coincidence. And it certainly explains Marvolo. I mean really, Marvolo? :0P

[meteorie.livejournal.com]

That's what I figured about his name. Yeah, I can't say I've ever heard anybody else called "Marvolo" before ^-^;

[conuly]

I already said that. Under "latin".