Sometimes things just have to smack me upside the head.......

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/39158>, "Geoff Bannister" <gbannister10 at ...> wrote:

<< Don't forget that astronomical names  are common in the Black family and relatives - Regulus, Draco, Bellatrix and Andromeda spring immediately to mind. >>

I'm more annoyed by the large number of non-astronomical names that Rowling included in the Black family, contradicting their family tradition. 

I'm willing to make excuses for 'Narcissa', pretending that wizards have given that name to some specific visible star which Muggles know by a Greek letter and a Latin genitive, or maybe which can only be seen by magic eyes, not Muggle eyes.

I'm willing to make excuses for 'Elladora', perhaps somehow named for a star with the un-Muggle-documented name of L Doradus (there is an S Doradus, in the southern constellation Doradus, the 'goldfish', which is actually some big ocean fish and not a carp). 

When I am then called upon to make excuses for 'Walburga', I feel that is a bit much. 

And the whole 'Black Family Tree' is annoying, starting with the arms on top, which I always thought should be a black snake on a black field, thus seeming pure Black unless one looked carefully.

Black Family Tree <http://www.hplex.info/wizards/blackfamilytree.html>