WW name trends (was No more alphabet, please)

[lupinesque]

No: HPFGUIDX 37738

Eileen asked:

> What has happened to the WW 
> that they so quickly switched over to a complete slate of almost 
> ordinary names? Draco and Hermione are pretty much by theirselves. 
> There are names that have classical backgrounds like Marcus and 
> Terence, but they're still modern names. 

It seems like Muggle generations.  Two generations ago we had loads 
of Helens, Ethels, Berthas, Franks, and Harrys in this country (the 
U.S.); those are rarities among children born today (with one 
exception, perhaps? <g>).  In fifty years Jessica and Jason will 
sound old-fashioned.  Some names are perennial (Anne, John, David, 
Margaret) but most ebb and flow.

On the other hand, in the WW we see several generations and the 
change seems quite recent:  we have odd names all the way from Albus, 
born c. 1842, to Sirius, born c. 1960, but then this latest 
generation is much more Mugglish.  We do see a bit of a crossover, as 
if in Sirius's generation people were starting to shift, so that we 
get Remus and Sirius and Severus but also James and Peter (Lily 
doesn't count, since of course her parents have her a Muggle name).  
Is there a sociopolitical reason behind the trend toward Harrys, 
Ronalds and Seamuses?  An unconscious desire to blend in, perhaps 
even a pro-Muggle statement in protest against the pureblood movement 
afoot in their birth year of 1980? 

Another possibility is that while to our ignorant eyes, Albus and 
Severus seem like similar names, to wizard perceptions they carry 
distinctly different generational markers, and are as distinct from 
one another as Severus is from Harry.

UndoubtedlyOveranalyzing!AmyZ