# Harry Potter pronunciation help

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 25, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396 "2007-03-25T03:46:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/21 "2007-03-26T17:41:08Z")

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Lestrange is a French name, so it makes sense that it would be pronounced the French way.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/22 "2007-03-26T21:52:39Z")

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[QUOTE=GuanoLad]  
[Sirius](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#Etymology) can change into the shape of a dog.  
[/QUOTE]  
:smack: How could I forget? Someone even pointed it out in one of our Potter discussions here!

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/23 "2007-03-26T22:00:06Z")

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[QUOTE=Cunctator]  
Is he red-headed?  
[/QUOTE]  
Well there you go! His hair is described as “tawny”, which is orange!  
And as saoirse said, one can find the word “scourge” in there (which I had noticed when looking for anagrams). That could describe a no-nonsense Auror catcher who doesn’t mind going a little overboard in his pursuit of evil-doers (e.g. imprisoning the innocent Stan Shunpike - and by the way, shunpike is the name of a type of back road in England from what I hear).

I guess the name of Rufus Scrimgeour was more cleverly chosen than I gave Ms. Rowling credit for.

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**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/24 "2007-03-27T00:57:24Z")

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[QUOTE=GuanoLad]  
I used to have friends when I was a kid whose surname was Scrimgeour…  
[/QUOTE]  
I also had a friend whose surname was Scrimgeour, except I was an adult at the time. Anyway, he pronounced his name “SCRIM-jer.”

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