Surname Names in HP
So @wisteria-lodge and I were talking about surname names (as one does when one is a name nerd) and they mentioned how surname names only became majorly popular around the latter half of the nineteenth century. Which got us to thinking that surname names might potentially be considered Muggle-y and a sign of either Muggle heritage or anti-pureblood supremacy and anti-Voldemort political orientation in the wizarding world, and that halfbloods often use Muggle surnames from their families to connect to Muggle heritage. So I decided to go looking for HP characters (drawing characters only from the 7 books, with extracanon material brought in for characters but not completely extracanonical characters--so there's only one Weird Sister because he is mentioned though not by name in the books. I did include one extracanonical character though bc I like her, but she can be ignored completely) with surname names to see if this headcanon holds up.
Aberforth Dumbledore: known to be halfblood, Aberforth could potentially be Kendra's maiden name. It appears to be a rare but in use surname (I went on a website that gave me a couple records of people with the surname)
Stewart Ackerley: A student sorted in GoF, unknown blood status but there don't appear to be other Ackerleys we meet, so he could be any blood status and may be Muggleborn.
Broderick Bode: Unspeakable who is murdered by Death Eaters in an effort to get to the prophecy. He may have been a halfblood or Muggleborn considering the death eaters' willingness to kill him.
Bowman Wright: Inventor of the Golden Snitch. Buried in the mixed magical-wizarding Godric's Hollow. extracanonical material says he was a halfblood (and also from the fifteenth century, which doesn't really track with his surname name lol, maybe Bowman is the nickname he was known by)
Dean Thomas: Muggleborn, attacked by Death Eaters and imprisoned for his blood status. He was originally supposed to have a subplot where he found out his missing father was a dead wizard...so it's possible this is his missing father's wizarding surname. or just a name his muggle parents liked!
Dexter Fortescue: A headmaster's portrait seen in OOTP. Nothing is known about his blood status. Having such a prominent position may imply he was most likely pureblood, though on the other hand a fellow Fortescue (Florean) is attacked by Death Eaters in the modern day, which may imply a family history of anti-pureblood supremacy. His portrait also celebrates Vodlemort's defeat in DH. But in general there isn't enough information to make any sort of conclusion either way.
Donaghan Tremlett: bassist for the Weird Sisters, first name is an obscure Irish surname, and the first name is extracanonical anyway (so IDK if he even should be included but it is technically assigning a name to a character that exists in the books). The wiki says he is Muggleborn. Attends Dumbledore's funeral, which may imply anti-Voldemort politics.
Dudley Dursley: Muggle, surname name is used for deliberate contrast with wizarding names
Vernon Dursley: Muggle, surname name is used for deliberate contrast with wizarding names. Also, Harry gives 'Vernon Dudley' as a fake name to the Snatchers and they immediately go to check a list of names of Muggleborns and any dissidents (though this may just be standard procedure). His fake name is not believed.
Garrick Ollivander: First name is extracanonical, and he *might* be a halfblood (though I personally don't like this headcanon he feels very pureblood to me: we don't know though!) @wisteria-lodge suggested Garrick could be a branch of the family and his first name is something else. And the Ollivanders seem pretty weird anyway so maybe they have more contact with the muggle world, OR a completely separate naming traditions, etc. Or coined independently as other wizards appear to have completely made up names.
Gilderoy Lockhart: First name is an obscure surname. Extracanonical material states he is a halfblood with a Muggle father(could be a case of the wizarding surname passed on)
Graham Pritchard: Slytherin student sorted in GoF, though we know nothing about him otherwise. Slytherin sorting might imply pureblood or pro-Voldemort political ideology, but that's far from certain and he could easily be one of the anti-Voldemort Slytherins and a halfblood.
Lee Jordan: holds anti-Voldemort politics and is active in the resistance through Potterwatch, which also requires familiarity with the muggle-derived technology of radio. Name could be a nickname. I headcanon him as a halfblood--it should be noted that his father is likely a wizard due to having dealings with Ludo Bagman, but this doesn't mean pureblood. Potentially an example of the Muggle surname name being used to signal being halfblood and anti-Voldemort, or an example of his mother's maiden name being used as first name (which explains why a Black character has a name the usage of which derives from Robert E. Lee....)
Kingsley Shacklebolt: Has a Sacred 28 last name but holds anti-Voldemort politics and is fluent in the Muggle world enough that he serves as bodyguard to the Muggle PM, so I headcanon him as halfblood.
Neville Longbottom: Pureblood, but his parents held anti-Voldemort beliefs. Seems to be an example of the related phenomenon of using common Muggle names (like Frank and Alice's own names) to signal anti-Voldemort allegiance (we also see this with the Weasleys)
Walden Macnair: Ok, he's a Death Eater, that might put SOME holes in our theory but a) it's an obscure surname which doesn't imply a broader trend of surname name use, just this one weird case which is best known as a philosophy book from 1854 and b)...we know of at least one half blood death eater, our boy Severus Snape, and it wouldn't be surprising if there's others. And Macnair is..weird. He works for a living! and seems to have a chip on his shoulder.gives off vibes of compensating for SOMETHING. was sent to liase with the giants which implies he's marginal to wizarding society. So if there's another half blood death eater, it might well be him.
"Graham" Montague: Slytherin who's probably a pureblood supremacist, but the first name is extracanonical. In the books he is just Montague.
Newton "Newt" Scamander: the full first name is extracanonical (not in the 7 books). More extracanonical information suggests his mother is a witch, but we don't technically know blood status. And it could easily be a way to honor a specific Muggle scientist and signal-pro Muggle politics.
Percy Weasley: BECAUSE CANONICALLY HIS NAME *IS* PERCY NOT PERCIVAL. and imo that's a deliberate choice, the more Muggle sounding duller surname chosen over the Arthurian mythological Percival to signal pro-Muggle politics. Similar to Neville. The Weasley siblings are a clear case of Muggle-y names chosen to show political affiliation from the Muggle-lover Arthur Weasley.
Urquhart Rackhallow: Invented the Entrail-Expelling curse in the 17th century and has a portrait in St. Mungos. This is really interesting, because there's a Slytherin Quidditch captain named Urquhart, which may imply that Urquhart is a pureblood family, so this character may have been given his mother's surname as a first name, which was the main use of surname names before their rise in the muggle world in the 19th century. or he may have a double barreled surname and the first name isn't listed.
Stan Shunpike: We don't actually know his first name--it might be Stanley which would qualify him for this list or it might well be Stanislaus. or it's just Stan. I'm including him for the sake of completeness. He *could* be a case of Muggle-y first name to signify Muggle ancestry as we don't know his blood status and he works on a bus and appears poor. If he isn't a Death Eater, a halfblood status might make him an attractive candidate for the Imperius: if he IS a genuine Death Eater he'd be far from the only halfblood (again, Snape).
Sturgis Podmore: Sturgis is clearly a surname (it even has a Wikipedia page with a fairly long list of people who have it.) We don't know his blood status, but he holds anti-Voldemort political views as an Order member. His mistreatment by the Ministry when sent to Azkaban (potentially without a trial as none is mentioned) may imply he's not pureblood (or just poor...)
Tracey Davis: Extracanonical Slytherin in Harry's year (it pains me to leave her out as I have detailed headcanons about her so she's here...). I headcanon her as halfblood.
Wilkie Twycross: The Apparition instructor from HBP. His first name is interesting because it *could* be a surname but the surname derives from an archaic nickname for William, which I see wizards absolutely jumping on. So this may be a case of wizards deriving a new first name that had fallen out of use except as a surname in the Muggle world. We don't know his blood status.
Wendell Wilkins: Hermione's father's alias while obliviated. Likely chosen to be deliberately non-wizard seeming and innocuous.
And...that's it. That's IT. I went through the entirety of the HP Lexicon character list and only found a relatively small amount of surname names characters, and out of them there were no examples where it was impossible to rule out the possibility they had been named due to Muggle ancestry or anti-Voldemort/pro-Muggle politics. So when naming OCs it's a fun exercise to consider the idea that surname names have certain political valences in the Wizarding World!
