Willy Wonka & Severus Snape: Alliteration in kids’ book names

What a wonderful read!

In recent years I have come to regard alliterative names as rather glamorous and try as I might to match something I like to my husband’s last name, I’m afraid L doesn’t lend itself all that kindly to alliteration.

The only one I even vaguely like is Levi, but it’s not ‘the one’ if you catch my drift? I also like Leo but we already have a Theo. I like Leonora but again there’s the Theo issue. So yes I would use an alliterative name if I could find one which fit.

We are considering an alliterative first name, but because our surname is double barrel it probably lacks some of the oomph of, say, Willie Wonka or Mike Mulligan.

I am generally for them.

I used to dislike alliterative names, but the more I look into names, (and the more I noticed them in every day life), I have realized that alliterative names tend to be much easier to remember. They have that ring that makes them stick in your head long after you first heard them.

I’m not planning on using an alliterative name when I finally conceive but I do like them. Before I was married I was Stephanie Smith. I know a few other people with the same first and last initial. I find they usually have a nice ring or flow to their names.

J.K. Rowling is a master of alliteration Just want to be helpful and point out two mistakes: McGonaggal is supposed to be McGonagall and Huffenpuff, Hufflepuff.

Thanks for catching those, molly_locket–they’ve now been corrected.

molly_locket, I totally agree with you about J.K. Rowling! I think my favourite name of her creation is Lily Luna – such a lovely combo!!

I’m writing a YA fiction using a character- Scarlette Scarlet

J’adore alliteration!! My fav combo that I’ve come up with so far is Poppy June Jemima. I love all of J.K Rowlings alliteration fun!

Oh, on another note, my grandpa is writing a story about a Charlie Barley.

I have an alliterative name, and most people don’t even notice! But I like it. My best friend has one too, with double L’s but for some reason she isn’t fond of it. I really like it, and my mother has even been known to say my friend’s name to herself outlandishly, clearly relishing in the alliteration.

Oh, COOL, a mention of Ender’s Game. Awesome.

I love alliteration. I think the fastest way to make a first and last name sound like they go together is to repeat phonemes, and the easiest way to do that is to repeat the first phoneme of each name, alliteratively.

We did that with our oldest daughter’s name–Bronwen starts with a B like our last name, and has two syllable ending in an -n sound, like our last name. It’s a nice combo.

I’m planning on multiple middle names for my future babies and alliteration is how I’m going to ensure middle name flow.

I also really love alliteration in names. It really adds something special to a name, and gives it more oomph then others. That’s probably why so many fictional character have them. In high school I knew a Gail Gardiner, and I thought she just had the most awesome name. Probably because it just had a famous ring to it after hearing names like Greta Garbo and Greer Garson.

I was against alliteration for our daughter, as it always sounded “comic booky” to me (Peter Parker, Clark Kent, Lana Lane, Lex Luthor, Bruce Banner…).

However, we ended up using Genevieve with our last initial being “J” and it flows quite nicely (biased though I may be). Having the varied consonant (G/J) sold me on the name, despite the repeated consonant sound (J/J).

I think it’s kinda cool but my last name starts with W so there is not many names to go. Although I do like Willow for a girl! Not a fan of the name Will/William for a boy though!

Even if the alliteration has a nice sound to it, I tend to be a little wary of how the repeated initials look.
One relative’s initials are K-K and she’s had to fend off questions about whether her middle name starts with K too (no, she’s not KKK, etc).

I love Lily Luna, too; not what I would have guessed she would pick, but that’s another reason why I’m glad she wrote the books and not me- beautiful names

My husband has a common last name beginning with M that we plan to use for our children. In trying to avoid first names that make the entire name identical to those of famous people with his last name, I’ve noticed an unusually large number of them have the alliteration MM.

My husband has an alliterative name and he’s been able to use it to his advantage over the years (e.g. when running for student council). My daughter’s first and second names are alliterative: Roseanna Ruth.

I love these. My dad’s an MM and I think it’s great! Especially when our family rang in the year 2000, we put MM on everything. His middle initial is a G so it was also fun when we visited MGM studios.

Also wanted to point out that Dedalus Diggle is not a student, he’s an “other” (Member of the Order of the Phoenix, making him an adult).

I never intended to have an alliterative name in the family… but somehow our daughter is Jade Genevieve (last name starts with J, too). It just fit, and we love it.

Dedalus Diggle isn’t a Hogwarts student, and ‘Mad-Eye’ (with hyphen) is Moody’s nickname – his first name is Alastor. Likewise Nearly Headless Nick’s real name is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington – but if you’re including nicknames then there are also the Fat Friar, the Bloody Baron and Moaning Myrtle.

Quirenus Quirrell, Bathsheba Babbling, Dilys Derwent and Poppy Pomfrey are also Hogwarts staff past and present; and as the trio never actually encounter Grindelwald, so it might just be easier to say ‘other characters include’ !

Pansy Parkinson, Peter Pettigrew, Parvati and Padma Patil, Bellatrix Black (maiden name), Colin Creevey and Gregory Goyle, are also Hogwarts students past and present, but Viktor Krum goes to Durmstrang.

My own name is an alliterative name as both my first (Tempanie) and last start wit T