Marauders era character names: class of 1977

[jocundasykes]

I spent hours making up names for those in Severus's year for a time travel fic I have yet to write. I've sent this list to a few people, but I may as well make it a public resource for those who have use of it.

There's nothing worse when writing than to have to stop to look up appropriate UK-sounding 70s names!

I've included a spread of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, wizardy names and characters of Ghanaian and Indian descent. I used the Office for National Statistics data to look at the most common names in 1960, as these characters were born Q4 1959–Q3 1960. In 1966, 2% of the UK population were of "New Commonwealth and Pakistan origin". Off the top of my head it wasn't until 1980 that the govt started collecting ethnic information in the census, and that's how we know that Harry's year group, born in 1980, matches the ethnic diversity of Muggle Britain in 1980.


Slytherin girls: Sadie Flint, Wendy Burke, Jayne Wilkes, Penny Fawley, Cadwyn Fuller
Slytherin boys: Jeremy Mulciber, Hugh Avery, Severus Snape, Gawain Williams, Christopher Stevenson

Gryffindor girls: Lily Evans, Sarah Pontefract, Jill Campbell, Angela Midgen, Claire Morrison
Gryffindor boys: James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Lancel Robertson

Huff girls: Tanwen Fowler, Vanessa Watson, Greta Catchlove, Miriam Misselthwaite, Niamh O’Brien
Huff boys: Derek Stebbins, Charles Ofori, Craig Blythe, Johnathan Shipley, Terence Turner

Ravenclaw girls: Euodias McKinnon, Yasmeen Singh, Tania Whittaker, Veronica King, Suzanne Ollerton
Ravenclaw boys: John Highgate, Walter McClivert, Brian Clark, Neil Mitchell, Thomas Youngfoot


How canon compliant is this list?

I am glad you asked! :D

We know Wilkes is a Death Eater but don't know their sex, so in the interests of fairness I made her a girl. It is sensible to say Avery and Mulciber are in Severus's year, judging by what Lily said in Severus's Pensieve memory. We don't know whether other Death Eaters mentioned in canon are in his year. We know of Marlene McKinnon—she died in 1981 and people like to ship her with Sirius—but odds are she's older. You'll see I've given her a younger sister, Euodias. (It's unlikely that all who are vaguely Severus's age ARE in fact Severus's age). We know Greta Catchlove, author of Charm Your Own Cheese, was born in 1960. And that's all we know.

EDIT changed Terence Cresswell to Terry Turner, because Dirk Cresswell was Muggle-born.
EDIT Derek Johnson is now Derek Stebbins because:

  ‘Quills down, please!’ squeaked Professor Flitwick. ‘That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!’

Comments

[bluedreaming]

Oh! I didn’t realize you had posted this here—that’s fabulous!

[jocundasykes]

Thanks a lot! I hope it'll be of use to others :D (and I was getting fed up of downloading my fic from the cloud, scrolling to the bottom, and screenshotting it every few weeks LOL)

[bluedreaming]

Of course! (I would be too)