Names in the Potterverse

[TK Kenyon]

No: HPFGUIDX 162231

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl at ...> 
wrote:> Bart:
> Which brings us back to names. ...We could probably find a dozen 
>meanings in Harry Potter alone (consider "potter", one who works 
>with clay to build things, "putter", meaning that he doesn't learn 
>things thoroughly but goes ahead without knowledge, "potter", when 
>he gambles, always wins the pot, just to give a few). 

AND ... putting is the lynchpin of golf, as in "You drive for show 
but you putt for dough," and since JKR is Scottish, and Scotland is 
the birthplace of golf, maybe Harry Putter means that he is the 
lynchpin of the wizarding world ... 

Okay, it's easy to get carried away with the names. I like your 
interp, though. And I love speculating on names. JKR's names are 
great, and it's so much fun. 

>Now, sometimes these names are so obvious that it is very difficult 
>to imagine that JKR did not intend the multiple puns (look at the I 
>am Lord Voldermot anagram, for example; she spent a LOT of time on 
>many of the names). Some are certainly pushing things, and may be 
>just coincidence. But for the major characters, certainly, she 
>clearly put a lot of effort into their names (so much so that she 
>has been embarassed a couple of times by names for which she did 
>not put in much work). 
> Bart

Dare we raise the spector of Maaaaark Eeeeeevaaaaaans? Eek! 

Yours in Potter,
TK Kenyon

www.tkkenyon.com 
RABID: A Novel, coming in April, 2007

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