Karkaroff's name

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 95874

Eric Oppen wrote:
> Actually, the simple explanation of Karkaroff's name is that he is
using an older convention for transliterating Russian names into English.
> 
> In the old days, particularly prior to the Russian Revolution, many
names that we'd now end with a "v" got ended with an "ff"
instead---I've seen "Kieff" where we'd say "Kiev" (modern Kiyev, in
the Ukraine), the ruling dynasty was called the "Romanoffs," and so on
and so forth.
<snip>
> 
> Considering how old-fashioned the WW is in many ways, them sticking
to an older convention is hardly surprising.  We don't know how old
Karkaroff is---with Dumbledore still up and running around at 150+,
and the witch that tested him on his N.E.W.T.s still alive and active,
wizards and witches seem to have much greater lifespans than we do. 
It could well be that Karkaroff spelled his name that way when writing
(in English, French or other Latin-alphabet-using languages) because
that was the correct way _when he learned those languages,_ and just
sees no particular reason to change. <snip>

Carol asks:
How would you account for Dolohov, then? Also, Karkaroff is clearly
much younger than DUmbledore, as his hair is still black at his
hearing some thirteen years before GoF. (I'm guessing that he's
between fifty and sixty in GoF.)

Carol, with apologies for the short post