Severus

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 190138

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, June Ewing <doctorwhofan02 at ...> wrote:

June:
> She has come up with some amazing names for people, things and
> villages in her books, she obviously does her homework as well as
> having an amazing imagination as some of the names are made up. I
> myself when I read the name Umbridge had actually misread it and
> thought it said Uxbridge which is a small town in Canada that I
> used to live near (however and I could be wrong I think it may
> have been taken from a name in England) and have always wondered
> if she had actually taken the name Uxbridge and just changed the
> spelling around to come up with Umbridge. 

Geoff:
Just for information, if she had used Uxbridge, it would be probably be 
from the West London suburb of that name, fairly close to Heathrow. I 
think the Canadians swiped Uxbridge for themselves because an early 
settler came from there....

However, when the genteel, polite and loveable character emerged in 
OOTP. the name "Umbridge" was generally accepted by group members 
at that time as being a play on words with "umbrage". To "take umbrage" 
means to be offended or annoyed by someone and certainly a lot of 
Hogwartians were willing to do just that with this delightful lady.