Birthday wishes. Also -- brain tired, suggestions requested

[snorkackcatcher]

First of all, a happy birthday to
ashez2ashes!

As for the suggestions requested: can anyone think of a really appalling middle name for Tonks, one so bad she wouldn't want to use it even in preference to Nymphadora? It's only needed in order to be read out in a post-war court proceeding concerning the fate of Teddy, so it's merely a throwaway detail in the story, and I can't think of anything better than the invented and rather lame 'Selenissima' off the top of my head. (Yes, I know I used 'Diaphanta' in NTLJ, but (a) that was nicked from chosen in homage to a_t_rain and therefore shouldn't be overused, and (b) I'm not sure I want to imply this story is in the same ficverse as NTLJ anyway.)

As I said, brain tired. Lack of sleep, getting soaked by freezing rain on a trip to the nearest library of record, spending hours trying to find eighteenth-century Parliamentary Commissioners reports ... (/violins) Incidentally, one experiment worked -- instead of copying things out in longhand or lugging fragile volumes over to the photocopier, just use the old phone camera to take acceptable-resolution pictures. I don't know if this is generalisable to other archives who I suspect may have a policy against it(?), but fortunately this one was down in a basement and pretty deserted.

Oh, while I'm here, glad to see I got one interpretation right. :) From JKR's latest interview:

At the end of book seven Harry has a long conversation with Dumbledore. Who actually is dead but looks better and happier he has ever looked, in a beautiful light space which Harry thinks resembles King's Cross Station.
You can interpret that conversation in two ways. Either Harry is unconscious, everything Dumbledore tells him he already knew deep inside. In that state of unconsciousness his mind travels further. Dumbledore is in that case Harry's personification of wisdom; he sees Dumbledore in his head so he can come to certain insights. Or Harry has travelled to a place between life and death. From which Dumbledore and he will leave in opposite directions.

I thought that scene was carefully set up to hedge its bets! (The Resurrection Stone scene too -- the shades of Lily and the Marauders don't do or say anything more than the 'echoes' in the wand-connection scene do, and rather less than a lot of portraits.)

Comments

[maple-clef.livejournal.com]

How about Gertrude?! Very un-Tonks, quite awful (for anyone under the age of 70), and could have been named for a Muggle relative of Ted's :D

Taking pictures of archives clandestinely in a deserted basement with a camera phone - how James Bond is that?!

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Or better yet, Ermintrude?

[snorkackcatcher]

Oh yes, I like that. Maybe Ted was a secret Magic Roundabout fan, and Andromeda probably wouldn't see anything at all out of the ordinary about the name. :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Hey, that's exactly the sort of name that would work!

That thought did occur to me, although to get the true ambience the camera ought to be built into a pen or a shirt button or something. :)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Probably not helpful because it's not a horrific name, but I've always used Jane, the idea being Tonks would hate it for being too plain.

[snorkackcatcher]

That's another possibility -- although it's Umbridge's middle name too, so I probably shouldn't use it here. (She's in the fic too, sticking her oar in.)

[jesspallas.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Ermintrude! I think you could be onto a winner there...;p

In case you want alternatives, from my person collection of form names (I don't hate all of them personally but I can see that Tonks might!): Tryhaena, Sensimillia, Marinella, Desiree, Elvira, Euphemia, Honeyblossom, Gwendaline, Rhapsody, Honeysuckle, Ghislaine, Bettina, Antonella, Genevieve, Philomena, Dorathea, Lovelia, Thomasine, Sophina, Emerline, Yolande, Taqui, Downa, Coriander, Pollyanna, Andrina, Phaedra, Andromache, Eveline, Anstice, Irma.

And each one of those comes guarenteed as belonging to a real person somewhere in the world!

[snorkackcatcher]

And I used to think my name was unsatisfactory. :) I mean, I suppose some of those names could be perfectly normal in some culture, but Honeyblossom?

[jesspallas.livejournal.com]

I know. There's are days in my job when I wonder if some people go out of their way to be cruel when they name their kids!

Another thought that just occurred - since the Blacks have star names, maybe her middle name is a star or constellantion? I don't know many - the only one springing readily to mind is Cassiopeia - but it's a thought. Or you could be terribly dull and plump for Andromeda which she couldn't use for obvious reasons...:)

[snorkackcatcher]

Actually, Andromeda would work! It's another approach to the problem, but it solves it neatly.

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

I met a Ludmilla, once. I thought that was fairly appalling - you can't even shorten it to something cute - you just get Lud.

[snorkackcatcher]

Hmm ... Millie, perhaps? :)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

What about Paige? Or Kylie?

Or if that's too Muggle for you, could she have been named after mad aunt Bellatrix in a doomed attempt at reconciliation?

[snorkackcatcher]

Tonks would have been born about 1973, though. Was anybody in Britain named Kylie before the late 1980s when Ms Minogue came to fame?

I did think of Bellatrix, actually ... although I'm leaning towards jesspallas's alternative suggestion that I just use Andromeda, and hence the reason she didn't use it was to avoid confusion.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, good point.

Toyah? Sharon?

[snorkackcatcher]

Too normal, methinks. Then again, maybe not in the wizarding world ...

[ashezfanficrecs.livejournal.com]

I have an aunt that's called Bethusala... I always though that was a pretty rough name to have.

[snorkackcatcher]

It's a bit strange, isn't it?

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Irma after her great-grandmother (Crabbe, see Black family tree)? That -dora ending's a Black name, after all...

[snorkackcatcher]

Unfortunately I've already got Irma Pince in the story! (Anyway, Irma doesn't sound too bad to me ...)