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

[Carol]

Catlady wrote:
> 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>
>
Carol responds:
It's possible that some Blacks were more traditional than others and/or that the tradition applied more to sons, who would retain and,  theoretically, pass on the family name than to daughters, who would most likely marry and give their husband's surname to any children they might have.

>From a practical standpoint, it's possible that JKR decided to name Draco's blond, blue-eyed mother Narcissa before she decided to establish the star/constellation tradition for naming Black children (which, for all we know, may have started with Sirius).

Carol, wishing that the children (other than Draco) with surnames other than Black were named