Ollivanders' origin

[severelysigune]

No: HPFGUIDX 94648

David wrote:
<<I believe that, in Greek, the ending -ander means 'man', thus 
Alexander, Menander, Anaximander.  Because of this, and their great  
antiquity, I had surmised that the Ollivander family came from that  
part of the world.  That strikes me as more plausible than a 'van  
der' component from Dutch, which would require a name to follow (as  
in, say, van der Waals); also I'm guessing that Dutch has changed a  
lot from its ancestral language since 382 BC and that the 'van der'  
form is relatively recent.
 
I don't know what the Alex- refers to, or if Greek was the language 
of ancient Macedonia, though Alexander certainly ended up spreading 
Greek language and culture through a huge area.
 
Anyone whose Greek is better than mine able to hazard a guess at the 
Olliv- part?>>

Sigune:
Well, my Greek isn't very good, but when it comes to Dutch I can be 
of some help.
First things first: the Dutch language very simply did not exist in 
382 BC. The first snatch of written 'Dutch' dates back to the 
eleventh century ("hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda 
tu wat unbidan wi nu"); that is the point at which the language is 
acknowledged as different from German. So, no, the "vander" cannot 
possibly be "van der" as in some Dutch/Flemish family names.

I like your analysis of "ander" as the Greek for man, which is 
undoubtedly right; but frankly "Olliv-" does not sound Greek to me at 
all. Olives do, though :). Maybe it's another JKR joke. Or we are 
heading in the wrong direction.

Yours severely,

Sigune