[HPforGrownups] Re: Weird names and reader/character identification

[Teek]

No: HPFGUIDX 12020


--- Amy Z <aiz24 at hotmail.com> wrote:
Just off the top of my head, Draco is the 
> only younger wizard with an unusual name.  Does this trend reflect
> a desire to blend in better with the Muggle world?  Or what?
> 

Maybe Draco is some kind of Malfoy family name. I think Millicent and
Blaise are both relatively unusual names, though. Maybe JKR didn't
want too many of her child characters to have strange names, it might
... isolate them from the younger readers, in a way? If you're nine
years old, it's easier to imagine havnig friends named Harry and
Neville and Lavender than having friends named Sirius or Narcissa.
The unusual names of the older generation keep them distanced from
the kids. 
Actually, the names appear to be more "common" the more the reader is
intended to identify with the character - the more sympathetic the
narative lays. We have lots of characters like Arthur and Molly and
Ron that Harry's close to, and more distant characters like Griphook,
or Cornelius. (Obviously there are sympathetic characters like Sirius
and Albus with unusual names, but they're not necessarily characters
that children would identify with) Am I making any sense? This might
be accidental on JKR's part, or a subconscious effect of giving more
familial characters familiar names, or me being totally off base. 

- Teek 

OT tangent: My parents went to school with a Donald Duck and a Candy
Cain (Pronouced Cane). No, I'm not joking. I go to school with Robert
DeNiro, and the manager of the local grocery is named Lydon B.
Johnson. 

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