A lot of people who grew up with Harry Potter – or developed their love for the franchise later – decided to name their pets after a Harry Potter character. The world is full of dogs and cats called Hedwig, Dobby, Crookshanks, or even Lupin, Severus, Bellatrix, etc – the list could go on. Some others decided to go a step forward and name their kids after a character from the Wizarding World that they loved, and that’s how there are a few babies out there called Albus, Harry and Hermione.
But Rachel and Chris went a bit forward, again. They both love Harry Potter, they read the books as they were growing up and attended book releases dressed up as characters. “He was less insane about it but he is obsessed with the series all the same”, remembers Rachel. “He doesn’t love to read but we have each read the series tons of times. We listen to it on audio, and we reference it all the time!”
Rachel and Chris got married and then got pregnant. They knew they wanted a Harry Potter name, but didn’t want it to make it too obvious: “all our friends were like ‘you’re gonna have a Harry or a Hermione!’”, she recalls. Then, they brainstormed names for their baby girl and found Rowling. “We both fell in love with it immediately – we love J.K. Rowling and all she stands for and we thought it was unique and a lovely sounding name- it felt so right!”.
Then the boy came and it was harder this time! “We both were like we’ve used the perfect name and now don’t know what to do!”, but Hermione was Rachel’s favourite character of all time and “we thought it was cool to have our son have a female inspiration”, so their son was called Granger.
Rowling and Granger, Rachel and Chris’ children, were named after Harry Potter’s author and one of the most iconic characters in the series. However, will they love the books? “When they grow up, I hope they love Harry Potter, but honestly the names have become their own and represent a wonderful sparkling reference in our hearts whenever my husband and I think of them. If they grow up loving Harry Potter, and we certainly have exposed them to it, then it will be super! But even if they don’t, the names will always be special to us.”