Everyone loves a good story, right? Spice it up with some magical realm with wizards and witches, intertwined with our reality and you get…you probably guessed, it’s the story that made both children and adults flinch, a magical fantasy, the universe of ‘Harry Potter’ film series.
In this article, we are going to take a deeper look into the mystical world of the writer’s genius mind, the iconic J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling) and understand her naming tactics that are related to the characters’ nature and personality. Having learnt that the majority of characters are of English origin, it is obvious that English names would appear the most, such as Harry, Ron, George, Remus, Peter, Lilly, James. Almost every character has, at least, one middle name that reveals even more about their nature and strong traits and helps in the evolution of characters. What is interesting is that we can see a mix of French and Portuguese names, such as Malfoy, Voldemort, Salazar, Lestrange that are given to those characters that are mainly on the dark side, leaving the English names for the representatives of the good side. The author’s connection with Portuguese is that she taught English in Portugal for a few years. As for the French names, I can assume that she wanted something memorable, French also being a popular language, so there’s a chance that even more people are able to understand the reason for which she named some characters like that.
Now let’s look closer and deeper:
1. Harry Potter – great destiny and great leader skills
The figure of the main character in the movies is a shy orphan boy with a strange scar on his forehead, named Harry James Potter, who is living a boring and difficult life in the cupboard under the stairs at the Dursley family, after his parents were murdered by Voldemort’s dark magic when he was just a baby, hence his magic scar.
His name is later to become one of the enigmas for the groupies of this series. It sounds somehow plain and boring at first, but in fact, was well chosen, representing a portal to his great destiny and his leadership qualities, despite being very shy as a kid. Harry is tracing back to the history of the kings of Great Britain. Many kings of England got this name and it was not by mistake. His name can also be linked to the Old German name Heri that means “army” and this is no surprise, since Harry was one of the “Dumbledore’s Army” founders, that was against Lord Voldemort.
Now, if you take a look at his last name, you can notice that, as many family names from different cultures, it determines the social status of his family and it basically refers to people who make pots. The middle name, James, is taken after his father, which is an English version of the Hebrew name Jacob, that has the symbolical meaning of “supplanter” or “one who follows”, which can tell a lot about Harry’s capacity of understanding his leading role.
Dumbledore’s army has two other founders, two of Harry’s best friends: Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
2. Hermione Granger – a name from gods, intelligent and fearless
One of the most uncommon and unusual names in the whole Harry Potter series is the name of Hermione Jean Granger, that can strike as complex and having lots of connections in history. The name Hermione is recognized in the Greek mythology as the daughter of King Menelaus of Sparta and his wife, Helen of Troy, and it’s a derivate from Hermes, a Greek god.
It also seems that Rowling has been inspired by William Shakespeare’s plays a lot for her characters and this name does not make any difference. It was taken from the Shakespeare’s “A winter’s tale”, but it also reflects her parents’ predisposition of showing their clever nature. Her middle name, Jean finds its meaning in a Latin word that can be translated as “God is gracious”, that also reflects her goddess-like features, as she is “the brightest witch of her age”.
Her last name, Granger, doesn’t have a hidden meaning, it is actually a common English and French name that represents a farm worker who is dealing with grains. You can say that Hermione is a very down-to-earth person and wizard, isn’t she?
3. Ron Weasley – a true ruler’s adviser
We are ready to move on to another best friend of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, who looks like a common English/Scottish clumsy boy, with ginger hair and freckles, shy but trustworthy. And if you haven’t figured it out by now, the name behind this image is Ronald Bilius Weasley, or simply Ron.
Ronald is a name that has a deep connection to the Old Norse name Rögnvaldr, meaning “a ruler’s adviser” which in fact, reveals his role in this wizardly journey as Harry’s sidekick. His middle name, Bilius, seems to refer either to a liver disorder or to a character trait, that can signify “ill-tempered”, a more fitting explanation, mirrored in his immature nature.
For his last name, Rowling has given us a hint about her preference for the mustelidae family, where weasels belong to and his name sounds pretty much like that – Weasley. She said that this type of animals was “not so much malignant as maligned”. I find it to be a very good name to justify his ginger hair and at times, his audacious behavior.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, everything and everyone has a chosen role and place in this story, teaming up either with Harry, or against him. And the names are following this rule, as well.
4. Albus Dumbledore – an old ‘bumblebee’ with great power and wise words
Another very iconic character, who is the Headmaster of Hogwarts and considered to be the most powerful wizard of his time, is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Each of his names have a meaning, the most recognizable of them all being Dumbledore, which means “bumblebee” in Old English. The author stated that she chose this name precisely because she imagined him walking around the castle and humming to himself, which makes a pretty solid image of him in the movies.
The name Albus must have come from his white beard and the other three middle names are present to empower his great persona, as a wise, gentle and powerful wizard. Percival takes us back to King Arthur’s times, him being the first knight that went in the searching of the lost grail, Wulfric could stand for “wolf” and the meaning of Brian is “noble”.
5. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin – a black dog and a werewolf
Among Harry’s living relatives, we can remember his godfather and best friend of his deceased father, Sirius Black, that has a naming pattern similar to another character, Remus Lupin, who can transform himself into a werewolf. Both names look to be pretty well documented, Sirius being the name of the brightest star that can be seen from Earth at night, that is also part of Canis Major, the Great Dog constellation. Taking into the account that Sirius’s Animagus is a black dog, his last name, Black came naturally.
The name Remus can be associated with the famous Roman myth “Romulus and Remus”, so it is directly linked to the image of a person raised by a wolf, whereas the Latin name Lupinus is even closer to the concept of a werewolf, revealing his true nature, that “of a wolf”.
6. Draco Malfoy – a faith in evil forces
Probably one of the most disagreeable characters is impersonated by Draco Malfoy, whose names are a match made in hell. It is a pretty scary name for the image of a blond boy, but has a pretty dark significance as well. The Latin word “draco” can be translated into the English “dragon”, a mythical and mystical creature that spits fire, and also appears in the Hogwarts’ school motto: Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus (“Never tickle a sleeping dragon”), saying that can be successfully applied to this character.
Given the fact that the whole Malfoy family follows the Dark Lord and his rules, it is quite obvious that their last name to have an echo in that direction. Malfoy comes from the French “mal”, which basically means “bad”, or “evil”, and “foi”, that symbolizes the English word “faith”.
7. Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort – the flight of death and the face of fear
After we’ve spoken a little bit of some of his followers, it’s time to introduce you to a name that can give you goosebumps in a second and is associated with the frightening face of Lord Voldemort, that started off as a student at Hogwarts, Tom Marvolo Riddle. His name was chosen on purpose to express his anonymity in the times he was a student. The banality of his name, such as Harry’s name is portrayed in an old phrase “Every Tom, Dick or Harry”, despite the popularity that the name Tom is embracing nowadays.
But the real secret behind his name is…Tom Marvolo Riddle is actually an anagram for the syntagm I am Lord Voldemort. Judging by his dual nature, his name could also come from the long form of Tom, which is Thomas that can indicate the meaning of “twin”, which could be linked directly to the interconnection to his rival Harry Potter, who is the only one able to defeat him.
His middle name is said to come from his pure-blood wizard grandfather Marvolo Gaunt, which has another hidden symbolism to it, being composed of two Latin words “marvellous” and “volo”, that is the translation for “to desire” or “to move rapidly”, a description for his rapid rising as the greatest enemy of the Ministry of Magic.
The last name, Riddle, is speaking for itself, suggesting “something that puzzles or perplexes” and fits Tom like a glove. He was not the innocent young student who came to Hogwarts with the desire to learn how to use magic wands and spells with the purpose of defending the castle and its magical dimensions.
Giving the fact that Tom did not like his name, he is best known as Lord Voldemort, which sounds as creepy as you may imagine. The translation of the French name Voldemort in English is “flight of death”, which is equally applicable to his morbid looks and nature and his thirst for death.
Now that we have formed an idea about the powerful images these names can create, we can understand the author’s sympathy and closeness for her characters and the wizardly word around the Hogwarts castle. What other meanings of the names in this beloved movie series do you know and which ones were your favorite?
Photo Sources:
- Main photo: TM & © 2022 Warner Bros
- The characters’ images were taken from TM & © WBEI. WIZARDING WORLD Publishing and Theatrical Stage Rights © J.K. Rowling.
