Part 1- Names

“I love inventing names, but I also collect unusual names, so that I can look through my notebook and choose one that suits a new character.” -J.K. Rowling

Introduction

The Harry Potter series is often marked by made up or unusual names, but there is often a much deeper meaning behind the names than many people would at first realize.  J.K. Rowling has often talked about how important names were for not just her characters, but the various places and spells in the story.  She has made up names, such as “Quidditch” and “Malfoy”, dug into historical meanings for names, drew on myths and constellations (Sirius, Hermione), and reused names to stress the importance of loved ones to various characters (for example, Harry names his eldest son after his father, James).  There are probably very few names chosen at random, and if you’re willing to dig through the names a bit you can uncover a whole new layer of complexity in the series.

Invented Names

Perhaps the most famous name invented by Rowling is “Voldemort.”  The character himself is called by many names throughout his life, but Voldemort becomes the famous name everyone fears.  The name Voldemort can be broken down by syllable into “vol”, “de”, and “mort.”  Digging into the meanings of each syllable, they are all of French origin.  “Vol” means “flight” or “theft”, “de” means “of” or “from”, and “mort” means “death”.  Put this together, and “Voldemort” means something along the lines of “flight from death,”  which as we discover in the seventh book is Voldemort’s whole goal in life- to evade death itself.

Names as Connections Between Characters

Names of often used to connect the characters, and the most obvious examples are often within families.  For instance, almost every member of the Black family shares a name with a constellation.  Sirius is the name of the dog constellation, which references Sirius’s ability to turn into a dog.  There is also Narcissa, a reference to the constellation Narcissus, a man who drowned after he fell in love with his own reflection (Narcissa is known to act mostly for her own interests), and then there is Draco, which is the name of the dragon constellation (a reference to Draco’s Hogwarts house Slytherin (which has a serpent as its mascot).  Then you have the Weasly family.  It is perhaps easy to guess the meaning of their last name, which is simply “Weasel.”  However, as explained on the Wizarding World website, “weasels traditionally tend to be pretty sly and deceitful, but we’d wager this wasn’t supposed to suggest the Weasley family are in any way devious, but rather that the weasel’s bad reputation is undeserved. It’s also no coincidence, of course, that weasels live in a burrow… as do the Weasleys.”  The Weasley’s are often given a bad reputation by other characters like the Malfoys, who disapprove of their willingness to befriend those who are not “pure-blood,” or those who are not ancestrally 100% wizard.

Names of Spells

Perhaps this is obvious, but many of the spell names come from Latin words.  “Lumos” the light giving spell, comes from the Latin words “lumen” (light) and “os” (to have), meaning “to have light.”  Its opposite, “nox” is Latin for “night.”  “Expecto Patronum,” the patronus conjuring spell (a patronus guards the caster from the terrible soul sucking creatures known as Dementors) roughly translates to “I await a guardian.”  Avada Kedavra, although not Latin, is an Aramaic term meaning “let the thing be destroyed” (and is also the origin of abracadabra, incidentally).  This fits as Avada Kedavra is the unforgivable killing curse, and literally destroys life itself.

Names as Foreshadowing

More than just being important through sound or meaning, these names can often offer insight into a character or foreshadowing about them.  For example, the reader is introduced to Rita Skeeter in the fourth book, a journalist who loves to spin nasty stories and start rumors about the subjects of her articles.  Throughout the book, Rita Skeeter releases a number of terrible articles about Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid, but many of the details are ones spoken during private conversations.  In other words, she should have no feasible way of collecting the information.  However, if you’ve made the connection, her last name, Skeeter, is a slang term for a mosquito, which is significant.  As the reader finds out at the end of the book, Skeeter can turn into an insect, which allows her to collect information secretly as she can simply sit on or near another character without being noticed.  Additionally, “skeet” can mean “gossip” or “news”, referencing her career as a journalist but also her love of spreading gossip.

Digging Deeper

If you are interested, there are endless quotes from J.K. Rowling discussing the names of her characters.  But fans themselves have dug deeper and uncovered possible origins and meanings the author herself has not mentioned.  My favorite example is that of the Weasley twin’s, Fred and George.  Prince Frederick and King George III were two men from the British Royal line.  Prince Frederick died young from an odd accident, which could allude to Fred Weasley’s untimely death.  Furthermore, George III had many health issues, including possible deafness, which may foreshadow George Weasley loosing an ear early in the seventh book.  What’s more, Fred Weasley was always a bit more dominant than George, but his death left George solely in charge of their joke shop, which is similar to how Prince Frederick’s death left George III as heir to the throne.  All this said, this is simply a theory and has not been confirmed by Rowling herself.

Conclusion

I know this was a long post, but I hope it was informative and maybe opened the door to the magic it took to piece together a story like this.  I hope that if you plan to read or reread the series (or have simply read them already), this has helped you gain some insight to the more intricate details hidden in plain sight throughout the series.  I personally find the etymology of names to be fascinating, but when the etymology is used to explain characters or to foreshadow, I find it an incredibly successful tool to add an extra layer to any story.

 

Image source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/laurengarafano/harry-potter-idenitify-characters-quiz

Information sources:

https://www.azquotes.com/author/12713-J_K_Rowling/tag/character

https://harry-potter-compendium.fandom.com/wiki/Rita_Skeeter#cite_note-17

https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/revealing-etymology-of-the-weasley-family-tree

https://www.bustle.com/articles/125284-did-jk-rowling-hint-at-fred-and-george-weasleys-fates-with-their-names

https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/the-different-meanings-behind-lord-voldemorts-many-names

http://www.accio-quote.org/themes/names.htm

https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/the-etymology-of-harry-potter-spells

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Curse#Etymology