# J.K. Rowling Naming Characters A social media joke format that mocks J.K. Rowling's naming conventions for minority Harry Potter characters, kicked off by a May 2020 tweet from writer Astead Herndon. By February 2023, the gag resurged when Hogwarts Legacy revealed a trans character named Sirona Ryan, read by critics as a thinly veiled 'SIR-ona' pun. ## Origin On May 13th, 2020, journalist Astead Herndon tweeted a short observation calling out the gap between how J.K. Rowling named her white and non-white Harry Potter characters, pointing to names such as Cho Chang and Kingsley Shacklebolt[1]. The post reached roughly 17,600 retweets and 165,000 likes over the next two years[6]. The same day, Twitter user @martamarxist posted a similar jab aimed at the naming of Irish character Seamus Finnigan[6]. The format solidified over the next eighteen months, with the Seamus Finnigan angle resurfacing on January 1st, 2022 in a @felipetmedinaa tweet that drew more than 6,600 retweets and 119,000 likes within a year[2]. From there, posters began swapping in different characters and ethnic groups while keeping the same 'imagined Rowling thought process' setup. - **Platform:** Twitter - **Creator:** Astead Herndon (@AsteadWH) - **Date:** 2020 ## Overview The joke takes aim at the pattern readers noticed in Harry Potter: white English characters get elegant Latinate names like Hermione Granger or Minerva McGonagall, while characters coded as racial, ethnic or religious minorities get names that read as on-the-nose stereotypes, such as Cho Chang, Kingsley Shacklebolt or Anthony Goldstein[1]. Posters write fake Rowling naming logic in the voice of the author, picking a trait and pairing it with the most obvious cliché possible to produce a punchline that mimics her method[2]. A typical post is a short text tweet rather than an image macro: a setup line about Rowling needing a name for an Irish wizard or a Jewish student, followed by a punchline name built from flat ethnic shorthand. Longer versions string together several invented characters at once[3]. The format is adaptable to any group a poster feels Rowling handled poorly, and it broadened over time from racial stereotypes to include Irish characters like Seamus Finnigan and, by 2023, trans naming jokes aimed at Hogwarts Legacy[6]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is J.K. Rowling Naming Characters? It is a Twitter parody format mocking the way J.K. Rowling named minority Harry Potter characters with on-the-nose stereotypical names like Cho Chang and Kingsley Shacklebolt[1]. ### Where did J.K. Rowling Naming Characters come from? Journalist Astead Herndon (@AsteadWH) started it with a viral May 13th, 2020 tweet about the gap in how Rowling named white and non-white characters[1]. ### What does J.K. Rowling Naming Characters mean? Posters write a fake Rowling naming process, pairing a character's background with the most obvious ethnic or demographic cliché to produce a punchline name[2]. ### How do you use J.K. Rowling Naming Characters? Common versions set up a scenario where Rowling needs a name for a character of a given background, then supply a punchline name built from flat stereotype, as @felipetmedinaa did with Seamus Finnegan[2]. ### Is J.K. Rowling Naming Characters still popular? The format spiked again in February 2023 around Hogwarts Legacy's trans character Sirona Ryan, read by critics as 'SIR-ona,' which showed it was still being reused[5][7]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/AsteadWH/status/1260708026497085451]() 2. [https://twitter.com/felipetmedinaa/status/1477425075364282368]() 3. [https://twitter.com/isaiah_bb/status/1477700531812454411]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/tnqhz7/jk_rowing_is_bad_with_names_rule/]() 5. [https://twitter.com/Game_Revolution/status/1622560306152062979]() 6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jk-rowling-naming-characters]() 7. [https://twitter.com/girlmeat5557/status/1622678456654856192]() 8. [https://twitter.com/seekingbroo/status/1622688533935755265]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/jk-rowling-naming-characters Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library