Harry’s back! The latest Harry Potter film has finally been released and I can’t wait to see it…I’m counting down the hours. While waiting for the release, I’ve been sorting through character names and picking out some of my favorites.

 

J. K. Rowling isn’t just a great writer, she’s a brilliant namer. In the Harry Potter series, she mixed in mainstream names like HARRY and RON with unique names like HERMIONE and LUNA, very unusual names like SIRIUS and SEVERUS and then truly off-the-wall names like HELIOTROPE, KENNILWORTHY and MUNDUNGUS. For a name nerd like myself, it made for great fun while reading the books.

 

Today we’ll look at witches and tomorrow we’ll check out the wizards. J

 

 

WITCHES

 

AMELIA Bones

ANDROMEDA Black

APPOLINE Delacour

ARABELLA Figg

ARAMINTA Meliflua

ARTEMISIA Lufkin

ASTORIA Greengrass

AUDREY Weasley

AUGUSTA Longbottom

AURORA Sinistra

BELLATRIX Black

BELVINA Burke

CALLIDORA Black

CARLOTTA Pinkstone

CASSIOPEIA Black

CATRIONA McCormack

CELESTINA Warbeck

CHO Chang

DAISY Dodderidge

DAPHNE Greengrass

DEMELZA Robins

DRUELLA Black

DYMPHNA Furmage

ELLADORA Black

ELSIE Prod

EMMELINE Vance

FIFI LaFolle

FLEUR Delacour

GALATEA Merrythought

GINEVRA “GINNY” Weasley

GRETA Catchlove

GRISELDA Marchbanks

HELGA Hufflepuff

HELIOTROPE Willis

HEPZIBAH Smith

HERMIONE Granger

HESTIA Jones

HONORIA Dumbledore

IGNATIA Wildsmith

ISLA Black

LAVENDER Brown

LILY Potter

LISETTE de Lapin

LUCRETIA Prewett

LUNA Lovegood

LYSANDRA Black

MAGENTA Comstock

MAISIE Cattermole

MARIETTA Edgecombe

MELANIA Black

MINERVA McGonagall

MIRABELLA Plunkett

MIRANDA Goshawk

MOLLY Weasley

MUSIDORA Barkwith

NARCISSA Black

NYMPHADORA Tonks

OLIVE Hornby

OLYMPE Maxime

ORLA Quirke

PADMA Patil

PANSY Parkinson

PARVATI Patil

PENELOPE Clearwater

PERPETUA Fancourt

PETUNIA Dursley

POMONA Sprout

POPPY Pomfrey

ROMILDA Vane

ROSE Weasley

ROWENA Ravenclaw

SACHARISSA Tugwood

SEPTIMA Vector

SYBILL Trelawney

URSULA Flint

VIOLETTA Black

 

SOURCE: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Harry_Potter_characters

 

 

 

There are so many fun names on this list it’s hard to narrow it down to a few favorites. But after a lot of careful deliberation, I came up with these faves: CELESTINA, LAVENDER, OLIVE and VIOLETTA. This is a loose list and I could easily have added several more, like AURORA, CALLIDORA, MAGENTA, MINERVA, ORLA and PENELOPE (love PENNY as a nickname).

 

Honorable Mention: MUSIDORA. I absolutely love this name, but would never be so bold as to use it for a baby. Anyone else out there like MUSIDORA or is it just me? I find the musical quality of the name very attractive.

 

Anyhow, that’s all for today. Check back tomorrow for wizard names.

 

Subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss any future baby name posts.

 

♥  Amanda

 

If you have baby name questions for me, email me at amanda@amandabarden.com.

Your question might appear in a future edition of Ask Amanda.

 

 

 

For more information on baby names and their meanings check out

BABY NAMES MADE EASY: THE COMPLETE REVERSE-DICTIONARY OF BABY NAMES