The secret meanings behind your favourite Harry Potter characters' names

Draco is Latin for dragon, appropriately reptilian for a Slytherin. Malfoy comes from the French 'Mal' meaning 'bad' and 'Foi' meaning 'faith' – which couldn't be much clearer.

Remus was one of the two brothers (along with Romulus) who founded Rome. In Roman myth they were raised by a wolf. Lupin comes from the Latin 'Lupinus' which means 'of a wolf' (think 'Lupine'). That baby Lupin grew up to be bitten by a werewolf is either a massive coincidence or nominative determinism at its most forceful.

We could speculate about tricksiness of the name 'Riddle' or the proximity of the Shakespearean name 'Malvolio' but we won't. His name is just an anagram of I Am Lord Voldemort. Voldemort, on the other hand, means "flight (or thief) of death" in French (Rowling has apologised to the French).

Sirius is the The Dog Star – the brightest star in the sky. Given that Sirius is an animagus who turns into a big black dog, that pretty much works.

'Salazar' was inspired by the Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar (JK confirmed it). Slytherin just sounds like something a snake might do.

The head of Harry's house has a first name taken from the Old English meaning 'Good Person'. His surname suggests a Griffin (mythical beast that's part lion, part eagle) that's made of gold (the French d'or). Wonder which house JK likes best?

'Lovegood' is presumably just an indication that this family are a benevolent lot. A 'xenophile' is someone who is fond of foreign people, culture or customs (as opposed to a xenophobe) – in this case we think it just means he likes strange stuff.

Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, as well as the sponsor of arts, trade and strategy. While JK Rowling explained the surname on Pottermore: "William McGonagall is celebrated as the worst poet in British history. There was something irresistible to me about his name, and the idea that such a brilliant woman might be a distant relative of the buffoonish McGonagall."

Bellatrix comes from the Latin meaning 'female warrior' which is fitting. Lestrange as a surname that traditionally comes from a nickname given to newcomers to an area (i.e. strangers) but we reckon JK was just thinking 'Lestrange' = 'the weird' when she came up with this one.

This one is pretty straight forward. According to JK: "'Dolores' means sorrow, something she undoubtedly inflicts on all around her. 'Umbridge' is a play on 'umbrage' from the British expression 'to take umbrage', meaning offence." 'Umbrage' comes from the Latin 'umbra' meaning shadow, too, which gives her an extra layer of darkness.

The divination teacher's first name is a reference to the ancient oracles and her last a Cornish reference. Rowling writes: "Sybill's first name is a homonym of 'Sibyl', which was a female clairvoyant in ancient times." And for her last, "I did not want to call her anything comical, or which suggested chicanery, but something impressive and attractive. 'Trelawney' is a very old name, suggestive of Sybill's over-reliance on her ancestry when seeking to impress."