[HPforGrownups] Re: Sharing names

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 98623

Wanda,

What young Tom Riddle eventually does with his name in the story 
doesn't explain why he has that name in the first place - why that 
name and no other.  Only the author knows that.  If it was merely to 
establish a link to his father, well, they already share the same 
surname.  If he had to be called "Tom" in order to preserve the "I 
am Lord Voldemort" anagram, that doesn't explain why his father 
couldn't have been George Riddle.  

Now me, Sherry:

I always just thought that JKR had come up with Lord Voldemort for her
villain, so Tom's name had to fit that.  I think, going by Tom/Voldemort's
character and hatred of his father, that being named after the father he so
despises would have rankled very much.  It added to his hatred in a way,
that having George Riddle for a father wouldn't have.  I just think it is a
way to help show the intensity of Tom's feelings about that muggle father.

Sherry G

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