List of Chekhov's Guns, unanswered questions.

[ethveg]

No: HPFGUIDX 171975

The question of why Riddle's name was familiar to Harry is one of the
BIG but seldom-seen-in-forums questions I've been wondering about.

'Almost as though he had been a friend in Harry's childhood.'

I suspect Harry must have HEARD the name at some point when he was too
young to encode it (store it in his memory) in a way which he could
recall when he became verbal (~ 2.5 years - he'd have been with Petunia
by then; he came to her at age 15 months.  But I don't think it's
likely she'd know the Riddle name, so he must have heard it very early.)

Perhaps Lily (and James?) was an auror and already working on the
Voldemort/Riddle history, and so discussed it at home?  Even so, at age
14 months or younger I'm not sure Harry could encode the name in ANY
way that would allow it to be recognized (and so 'seem familiar') when
he heard it again in adulthood.

ethveg