Draco the Dragon?

[rcraigharman at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19789

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., rja.carnegie at e... wrote:
> Back to www.babyname.com, which actually claims to recognise:
> 'This boy's name is used in English.  Its source is a literature
> expression whose meaning has been lost.  The name Draco did
> not rank among the roughly 6,000 names reported in the 1990
> Census Data.'

www.babyname.com shouldn't be trusted, after all, read what it
says about "Gilderoy":

"This boy's name is used in English. Its source is unknown.  The
name Gilderoy did not rank among the roughly 6,000 names reported
in the 1990 Census Data."


Sound familiar?

These are clearly submissions by users, probably Harry Potter fans
that have been cleaned up to fit their database format.  It goes back
to the old computer expression: GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out.


> www.m-w.com says that "Draco" is (1) Latin for "dragon" and
> (2) a constellation allegedly resembling a dragon and
> (3) a particular historical person who was an 'Athenian lawgiver;
> prepared prob. first comprehensive written law code for Athens
> (ca. 621 B.C.), prescribing death for most offenses, whence the
> word draconian.'  I think you covered all that.

The first two are in essence the same word in Latin where the
second is a metonymical use of the first.  Draco was also used to
refer to a cohort's standard, a sea-fish, a water-vessel shaped like
a serpent, an old vine-branch, and of course, ecclesiastically, the
Devil.  [Source: Lewis and Short]  The third was a proper name
derived from the Greek word "drakon" (serpent, dragon) which is the
source of the Latin.  Hence, all three are of the same root.


> The name Lucius, now: 'This boy's name is used in English.
> Its source is Lux, a Latin name meaning "Light."  The name
> Lucius ranked 1171st in popularity for males of all ages
> in a sample of the 1990 US Census.'

And again, www.babyname.com gives us rubbish.

Lucius was the Latin name.  Lux is the Latin word for 'light', but
it was not used as a name, afaik.


> Hmm, sounds a bit like "Lucifer"? ("Bringer of light.")

Of course, but strictly speaking, the use of Lucifer to refer to
the devil was derived from a verse in Isaiah referring to a
Babylonian king as the morning star (i.e. the bearer of light) and
this was again used metonymically to refer to Satan as the fallen
angel who was the Son of the Morning.

....Craig