Oh, and of course there’s my continuing complaint that “Harry” is just a diminutive. His formal name should be Henry James Potter.
Unless it isn’t. “Harry” may have originated as a diminutive form of “Henry”, it’s certainly possible for “Harry” (or “Danny”, “Billy”, etc.) to be a boy’s full legal first name. This kind of thing has been common since at least the 1950s. My own father’s full first name is also one normally considered a diminutive, but the diminutive form is the name my grandparents picked out for him. It’s on his birth certificate and everything.
Indeed - one of my brothers is called Harry. It’s the name on his birth certificate and everything. It’s no different to someone being called Ben or Josh in their own right (as opposed to Benjamin and Joshua).
I didn’t realise Harry was the nickname for Henry-I thought it was the diminutive for Harold. I always thought “Hank” was the nickname for Henry. Also, why would “Henry” even need a nickname?
It’s also more likely, given that universe, that people would end up with their teenage sweethearts. While magic people do marry non-magic people, I would imagine it is a bit of a problem in the whole dating scenario. And a young wizard/witch would be most exposed to easy dating prospects while at Hogwarts/whatever other school.
It might be possible but it’s just plain wrong, and that’s one thing on which reality will not shift me. People oughtn’t to have diminutives as their real names. Period. (Excuse me while I cover my ears while any contrary reply comes up.)
English people traditionally used only about half a dozen given names. Frequently for generations, fathers and sons would have exactly the same name. Sometimes even brothers would be given the same name. It was very confusing. If everyone was named “Robert,” then they had to come up with different ways of addressing them – Robby, Bobby, Hobby, Nobby, Dobby, etc. (Those are all real diminutives for Robert. Not making that up.)
Look at Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Every single one of the principal characters have “Henry” for their given names.
I seem to recall an old joke about a Scottish village in which everyone is named Alexander White (“Sanny Fhite”). A stranger comes looking for Alexander White and he keeps having to add descriptions to narrow it down (tall, thin, red-haired, big-nosed, clean-shaven, dirty-finger-nailed Sandy White).
Forgot to add:
“Harry” was originally an Anglicized pronunciation of the French “Henri.” The Anglo-Saxon version was something like “Heimirich.”
Well they do in reality, not just in fiction, so I suggest you get over it lest you end up lecturing someone IRL that their legal name isn’t valid because it’s technically a diminutive.
I suggest you refrain from lecturing a complete stranger on the Internet when all you have to go on is a casual and flippantly worded statement of opinion.
I suggest you switch your sense of humour to the “On” setting.
Some names in the wizarding world may sound like diminutives of ordinary names but aren’t meant as such, according to Rowling - Bill Weasley is supposed to be short for Bilius rather than William, and Ginny is short for Ginerva rather than Virginia.
At least that’s what she said later - considering that all the Weasleys were given names that are pretty common outside of Hogwarts (Arthur, Molly, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ronald - and yes, Ron has been referred to by the full name on occasion, it’s not short for something wizard-y that isn’t Ronald), I can imagine that “wizarding up” the full names was likely an afterthought.