My shocking idea

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 74045

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "James Redmont" > (p. 244, 
U.S. Edition)
> "You are Muggle-born?"
> "Half-blood, sir," said Riddle.  "Muggle father, witch mother."
> "And are both your parents-?"
> "My mother died just after I was born, sir.  They told me at the 
> orphanage she lived just long enough to name me - Tom after my 
> father, Marvolo after my grandfather."
> 
Rowling writes this sort of thing, and it looks straightforward, but 
it's really hard to visualize just what might have happened.  I 
guess I picture a sort of Oliver Twist scenario, with the poor 
pregnant woman who crawls to the workhouse, delivers her child, and 
with her last breath murmurs his name then dies.  I don't think it 
quite fits in with Britain as it really was in the 30s, but I've 
made my peace with the many ways Rowling's England differs from the 
real England.  I still think, though, that Riddle's mother could 
have given him that name, with no one knowing who she was referring 
to.  Maybe she did say, "Name him Tom Riddle, like his father, and 
Marvolo, after his grandfather," but I think it's more likely that 
he just had this name and never knew whom he was named after until 
he was able to leave the orphanage and do his own searching.

Wanda