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Why are there so many characters/things named with letter "H" in Harry Potter?

We have: Harry himself, Hagrid, Hogwarts school, Helga Hufflepuff, Hermione, Harry's Owl (Hedwig), Horace Slughorn, Hannah Abbott, Hugo Weasley (Ron/Hermione's child) and the Half-Blood Prince nickname. We have Hereward Godelot (ex-owner of the Elder Wand) and Malfoy's son's middle name (Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy). Oh, and a whole BUNCH of other minor characters named with "H".

Plus, the non-character names: Holyhead Harpies team, Hog's Head bar, Honeydukes Sweetshop (which is in Hogsmeade).

And, oh yeah, Horcruxes and Hallows!

Is the letter H somehow special to Rowling? Or was that just because there were so many names used, and it's a statistical fluke? (the list of characters linked above is pretty long!)

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  • Good Pattern look-up, but its just an evidence. I follow all interviews of Rowling.
    – user11147
    Feb 9, 2012 at 15:39
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    If you look at that site you linked to, there's more character names with B C D G L M P S T & W. I think the better question would be, do YOU have a fond-ness for the letter H?
    – OghmaOsiris
    Feb 9, 2012 at 16:48
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    @OghmaOsiris - hopefully, hno.
    – Alax
    Feb 12, 2012 at 18:15

1 Answer 1

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In a word (a Word of God, to boot): NO

Question: There are an extraordinary number of names that start with "H" (Harry, Hermione, Hedwig, Hogwarts, Hagrid, Hufflepuff). Is there any reason for that?
J.K. Rowling responds: Erm...no!
(source: "About the Books: transcript of J.K. Rowling's live interview on Scholastic.com," Scholastic.com, 16 October 2000)

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  • 15
    At least no conscious reason that JKR was aware of (or willing to state). It seems unlikely at best that there wasn't some internal predilection towards the letter H.
    – Xantec
    Feb 9, 2012 at 15:01

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