Hermione is Umbridge

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 93006

Kia wrote:
A while ago I run across an old interview of JKR (I run across 
only one, but she said it twice 
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/2000/1000-nbc-couric.htm
 
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/1999/109
9-pressclubtransc.html
in which Ms Rowling stated (jokingly I presumed): If she had known how
problematic the pronounciation of Hermione would be, she would have
called her Jane. (paraphrasing.)
 
I went... "Jane"?? (and instead of thinking "Jane Austen" - which 
is the closest guess one would wager with Rowling and her 
Austen idolisation) I went "Didn't I hear that name in OotP?" And 
of course it is in OotP: it is our least favourite character's name: 
Dolores Jane Umbridge (not Rowling's though - Isn't that 
strange that she likes Vernon less than Umbridge?)
 
 
So I pondered how Rowling could even consider giving her most 
sadistic character Hermione's alternative name and I pondered 
and mulled over and meditated... until I realised that nothing is 
more uninteresting than a speculation based on something that 
is said jokingly and I abandoned my line of thought.
  
But then - to my delight - our dearest Joanne answered a 
question after Ron, Ginny and Hermione's middle names with: 
"Middle names: Ginny is Molly, of course, Hermione 'Jane' and 
Ron, poor boy, is Bilius." (Link: 
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/JKRWorldBookDay2004.html

I leave Bilius and Molly to other people for now and concentrate 
on the fact that Umbridge and Hermione share the same middle 
name. Jane. 
 
Both Hermione and Umbridge like rules. They like to enforce 
them. They like having the power to enforce them be it through 
prefecture or being a High Inquisitor. <snip>
They carry each other's middle name deservedly. The real 
difference between them besides looks, age, conscience and 
other "unimportant" details (Yes, I am sarcastic.) is that they are 
on opposing sides and Hermione's side is the one, we 
sympathise with. <snip>

Carol:
I'll leave the defense of Hermione to other posters (I imagine quite a
few will disagree with your thesis and one or two will take umbrage at
it). 

Let me just say that I disagree with your idea primarily because JKR
has repeatedly stated that she likes Hermione and that Hermione is an
exaggerated version of her younger self. So let me posit a simpler
explanation:

Jane and Jo (also Joan, which is very close to Joane, Rowling's
spelling of her name) are all variants of the same name, the feminine
version of John. So JKR (seriously or jokingly) considered giving her
fictional younger self a variant of her own first name, and actually
did give it to her as a middle name, an indication of her
identification with that character. Oddly, she gave the same middle
name to Umbridge, with whom she couldn't possibly identify, perhaps as
a sort of in-joke with an audience of one. But notice that Remus Lupin
has the same middle name in its masculine form. He's the teacher she
likes best, the one she would most want as a teacher for her own
children. So maybe she identifies with him, too, or wants to link him
to Hermione in some way. (Interesting that he's half-Muggle, BTW,
another connection with Hermione. And as someone on this list pointed
out, possibly Kneasy, that horrible cardigan that Umbridge wears over
her robes suggests that maybe she's a Muggle-born, too.)

John, BTW, is Hebrew for "God is gracious" and was the name of the
most beloved apostle, so, given that we know JKR is a Christian, the
choice of that middle name for Remus may suggest a special place in
her heart or in his relationship to Dumbledore. (It's a stretch, I
realize, and I know Pippin won't like it, but I wanted to mention it
as a possibility, anyway.) I'm not trying to suggest that Hermione is
Harry's most beloved disciple or that Umbridge is Fudge's (smirk!),
just looking at the etymology of the names and their possible
significance. I think the Jo/Jane/John connection is sustainable even
if the etymology itself isn't relevant to the characters.

Carol