Books

You've Probably Been Saying Ginny Weasley's Name Wrong

by Emma Oulton
Warner Bros.

Think you know everything about Harry Potter? Think again. There's a chance you might be saying Ginny Weasley's name completely wrong.

Reddit user Roonil-B-Wazlib posted on Monday that they had just had a shocking realization. Having always thought Ginny's name was short for Ginerva — pronounced to rhyme with Minerva, as in McGonagall — Roonil-B-Wazlib suddenly looked a little closer and noticed that the letters are in fact the other way round. Ginny's name is actually short for Ginevra, to rhyme with ... well, that actually doesn't rhyme with anything.

Harry Potter fans definitely aren't strangers to this type of name-related confusion. Most readers were calling Hermione "Hermy-one" or "Hermoyn" for years before Goblet of Fire and the movies put everyone straight — and we've all been pronouncing the "t" on the end of "Voldemort." (I mean, there's clearly a "t" there! Don't play these mind games with us, Jo.) Further down the Reddit thread, someone with the username ykickamoocow111 confessed that they'd been pronouncing Ginny with a hard "G," like the word "Guinea." And user revesvans questioned whether Ginny's full name is pronounced Ginevra or Jinevra — and at this point, I don't even know what I think anymore.

So don't be embarrassed if you've also been calling Ginny "Ginerva." We've all been there. At this point, I'm convinced that calling people the wrong name is a key part of the baffling Potterhead experience. Next up, J.K. Rowling's probably going to tell us that the "g" in Hagrid is silent.