Names in the Potterverse

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 162146

Leah:
>The name (also confirmed by JKR in an interview) comes from Mansfield 
>Park by Jane Austen.  Mrs Norris is the heroine's aunt and one of the 
>most unpleasant characters to grace English Literature.

Bart:
Which brings us back to names. I (and many others) have noticed that many, if not most of the names in the Potterverse have 2, 3 or more levels of meaning. Recently, I mentioned the way that Dumbledore keeps his mouth shut about many things; it was pointed out that Dumbledore also meant bumblebee. But there's no reason why BOTH can't be true. Mr. Filch confiscates (or filches) items from students. 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). 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