The name 'Kendra'

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 179358

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Mike" <mcrudele78 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Catlady:
> > > Which I think is a very pretty name, but I wonder when it was 
> > > first used by Muggles. I suspect it was not used by Muggles 
until
> > > after Albus's Muggle-born mother was born and named Kendra. 
> > 
> > Ceridwen:
> > -<snip>-
> > 
> > I'm glad you brought this up.  That name for the proposed time, 
> > dragged me right out of the story.  I never knew anyone named 
> > Kendra while I was growing up. 
> 
> Mike:
> Curious. A good friend of mine, from my AF days, had an older 
sister 
> who was married to and had a daughter with Ken Stabler, the Oakland 
> Raiders quarterback. They named her Kendra.

Ceridwen:
So, your air force days - the 1980s, perhaps?  I did consider that 
the name Kendra might be an attempt at a female version of Kenneth.  
Not the standard practice in the 1800s, though I did know of a poor 
girl christened "Fredine" for her father in the mid-20th Century.

Mike:
> So, I was pulled out of the story momentarily because I knew of 
> someone named Kendra, and you were pulled out because you didn't 
know 
> anyone named Kendra. Seems JKR couldn't win using that name for Mrs 
> Dumbledore.

Ceridwen:
Probably not.  It just didn't ring true to the times, for me.  
Myrtle, sure, though she had already used it.  Hazel, yes.  Edith.  
Clara.  Lillian.  Miriam.  I had a laugh at Hepsibah Smith, but then, 
I had a cat named Hepsibah.  It's an old name, with some Biblical 
backing.  Something I expected in the HP series, and suitable to Ms. 
Smith's age and time.  It didn't pull me out of the story, it just 
put me in mind of my cat in the same way that meeting someone in Real 
Life who was named Hepsibah might.

Mike:
> No, but I know you're part of a secret witches coven that's trying 
to 
> overturn the 1692 statute of secrecy, Ceridwen. By the way, how's 
> that new wand working out? Sassafras with Thestral core, isn't it?
>  ^-~

Ceridwen:
The new wand is working out fine, thanks, but you got the wood 
wrong.  Sassafras is a weak and brittle wood.  My wand is made of 
nice, aromatic Red Cedar with a Thestral core.  I'm going to have to 
sew in a wand pocket, though, it keeps getting lost in my school 
bag.  Tried to drag it out in Anthropology the other night, but 
couldn't find it until Philosophy.

Why not overturn the Statutes?  What good have they done?  We're a 
society living in constant fear of detection and of doing something 
inadvertently in front of Muggles.  If you ask me, the Ministry uses 
that for leverage to keep us all under their thumbs.  They'll never 
get rid of Muggle prejudice this way, and that prejudice is just 
leverage for various and sundry Dark Lords to motivate potential 
followers.  Come on, join, Mike.  You know you want to!

Ceridwen.