Exploring the magical world of Harry Potter: a meaning-based analysis of names and their translation into Italian

Introduction 
Translation is a fascinating discipline; though, sometimes people do not 
understand the work “behind” translation, or the difficulties that could be 
found doing a job like that of the translator. For this reason I decided to 
write my dissertation on a topic linked to translation. Harry Potter came to 
my mind while I was thinking about a book that could be considered a 
mixture of different kinds of literature and that contains many challenges 
for a translator. Moreover, a lot of spoilers of this book series can be found 
in the Internet, because fans do not want to wait 5 or 6 months to get the 
novel translated into their own language. These spoilers and non-
authorized versions may be well-translated, but can also be of bad quality. 
Indeed, the translation of a novel such as the Harry Potter ones requires 
accuracy and a lot of precision, which should start from the smallest 
details. 
Serena Daniele, one of Harry Potter‟s translators for Salani (Italy), wrote a 
note that has been published in the book before the first chapter from the 
second edition on, where she explains the choices Italian translators 
made. The note is: 
“La traduzione di un libro tocca corde sensibilissime nel cuore e 
nella mente dei lettori: si tratta di passare da una lingua all‟altra 
rispettandone “suoni e visioni” e mantenendo intatta la 
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suggestione delle parole. In questo senso, la serie di Harry 
Potter ha comportato scelte editoriali molto delicate. 
In Harry Potter i nomi di persone o di luoghi contengono quasi 
sempre un‟allusione, una parodia, un gioco di parole. 
Molto spesso è stata mantenuta la forma inglese, perché più 
evocativa e immediata: altre volte si è scelta una traduzione 
che ricalcasse il significato dell‟originale, o privilegiasse 
l‟assonanza; altre ancora un‟interpretazione che rendesse la 
suggestione comica o fiabesca o quotidiana del contesto. […] 
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Serena Daniele ” 
This piece of work is aimed at making people understand the reasons why 
it takes such a long time to translate a book like this, providing examples 
of one challenge in particular: translating names, both of characters and 
animals. 
Indeed, 
“the names of most of the 127 characters in the Harry Potter 
books have a tie to some appropriate external meaning. 
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Reading the glossary of names is amusing in and of itself.” 
First, I will take into account what translation studies are and how this 
discipline evolved in the past years. Then, I will analyze professors‟ and 
other characters‟ names in chapters 2 and 3. Last but not least, I am going 
to consider animals‟ names in the last chapter. 
1
 The note can be found also on the Salani website: http://www.salani.it/sal-2.htm 
2
 Rudolf Hein, “Harry Potter Glossary” 
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1. Translation and its challenges 
1.1 Translation and Translation Studies 
Translation has always been a topic for many debates, both between 
linguists and translators, but also between common people. People 
usually worry about how to translate a song, a film or a book, while 
linguists are more concerned about the real meaning of translation itself, 
and about finding the best way to translate any kind of text. 
But what is translation? According to House (2009: 13), 
Translation can be defined as a process of replacing a text in one 
language by an equivalent text in another. 
This could be a good definition, considering that it can be used while 
talking about all kinds of translation, from the literal to the more “free” one. 
The thing that really matters is that the texts should be equivalent, so the 
translation should convey the same message as the original text. 
Translation Studies represent the human science that studies the 
theoretical, practical and descriptive aspect of translation and 
interpretation; the idea that Translation Studies should be considered as 
an independent discipline is recent, it has spread from the 1960s on. 
Until the 1980s, in Europe there were two main schools of thought about 
Translation Studies. The first is the Leipzig School, which developed in 
Germany, whose main representatives are Otto Kade, Gert Jäger and 
Albrecht Neubert. This school considered traditional translation theory as 
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“pre-scientific” and aimed at making its study rigorously scientific. In the 
words of Fritz Paepcke, s Romanist and translation theorist: 
“Die Sprachwissenschaft ist eine Wissenschaft ohne Sprache” 
This means, in English, that “the science of language is a science without 
language”. 
What this school had in common with the other major ways of thought of 
those years was the concept of equivalence, seen as either between 
translation units or at a level of the entire text. There is a third option, that 
of considering equivalence at both levels, developed by Reiss, who wrote 
(1971:11): 
“In translation equivalence should be established both between the 
complete text of the original and the target-language version and between 
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the individual translation units”. 
The second main school in Europe was the one centred round the Dutch-
speaking area and viewed Translation Studies as a branch of Comparative 
Literature. This school admitted manipulation of texts in order to help 
translation and divided texts between “primary” and “secondary” models 
and types. Primary texts are the innovative ones, while the secondary 
ones are the texts which confirm the existing system. 
In the 1990s these schools and theories started to be considered too 
vague to be a basis for a theoretical approach to this discipline. Three new 
approaches developed during these years, and all viewed translation as 
an act of communication, a cross-cultural event. 
3
 Translation from German to English by Mary Snell-Hornby (1988: 16) 
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The first of the three was based on Hönig and Kussmaul‟s Strategie der 
Übersetzung (1982). They considered the text as embedded in a given 
situation, so conditioned by sociocultural background. The translator had 
two possibilities: maintaining the original function of the source text in its 
own culture, or changing the function to adapt the text to the target culture. 
The second one was based on the function of the translated text, and the 
major representatives were Reiss and Vermeer. Vermeer viewed 
translation as a cross-cultural event, and formulated his definition of 
translation as follows: 
“I have defined translation as information offered in a language z of 
culture Z which imitates information offered in a language a of culture A so 
as to fulfil the desired function. That means that a translation is not the 
transcoding of words or sentences from one language into another, but a 
complex action in which someone provides information about a text under 
new functional, cultural and linguistic conditions and in a new situation, 
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whereby formal characteristics are imitated as far as possible”. 
In this case the functional element was dominant. 
The last approach was more radical in methods and conceptual model 
than the other two and was strictly connected to the publication of 
Translatorisches Handeln. Theorie und Methode (in English, Translatorial 
Action. Theory and Method), by Justa Holz-Mänttäri. She also viewed 
translation as an action across cultures, but she replaced the concept of 
“text” with the concept of “message”, of which the text is the vehicle. She 
4
 Translation into English by Mary Snell-Hornby (1988: 46); Original text taken by Vermeer (1986: 
36) 
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was the first to consider the professional translator as an experienced and 
highly trained expert. 
Lately, in the introduction to their anthology of essays on translation and 
Translation Studies, Bassnett and Lefevere (1990:ix) stated that: 
“The growth of Translation Studies as a separate discipline is a success 
story of the 1980s. The subject has developed in many parts of the world 
st
and is clearly destined to continue developing well into the 21 century” 
Their prediction was almost right, and nowadays the translator is 
considered as an expert, and his job profile is rapidly changing, 
demanding language competence, but also, as Snell-Hornby (1995:135) 
wrote „a wide range of cultural and encyclopaedic knowledge and above 
all a high degree of subject area expertise‟. 
1.2 About books for children 
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“Ever since there were children, there has been children‟s literature.” 
In Greek and Roman traditions, children read and recited poetry and 
drama; as we have to take into account that the history of children‟s 
literature is strictly linked to the history of childhood, this could be a good 
starting point. In fact, in these cultures, children‟s progress was measured 
through books. Pupils‟ life was centred in memorization and recitation; 
they would be given fragments from poets and dramatists and had to learn 
and recite them. The goal for both Roman and Greek students was public 
5
 Lerer, S. (2008), Children’s Literature – a reader’s history from Aesop to Harry Potter, University 
of Chicago Press, p. 1 
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life; the two educational models are slightly different and this is due to the 
different histories of the two empires. In that period works written for 
children didn‟t exist, but the pre-existing texts were adapted for children. In 
both cultures, the primary texts of education were written in Greek; as 
Lerer (2008: 28) wrote, Quintilian argued that the first language of the well-
born child should be Greek precisely to allow him access to these 
educational traditions. Fables were spread all over the empire; their moral 
lied always with status, class and birth: it said to be content with who you 
are and to keep things in the order of nature. Aesop‟s fables were the 
most known, and their narratives returned to central episodes of 
childhood; they teach literature, in some way, relying on figurative 
language. 
We can find a „richly textured verbal and imaginative world for children 
throughout medieval Europe‟ (Lerer, 2008: 57). The Church, in the ages, 
had absorbed the Roman educational traditions, and classical texts 
continued to be read, but with new goals. The family structure was 
changing and patrilineage became the way of inheriting land, power and 
title. Children could even become kings, and the courts were full of child-
kings and other children. Children who were brought up in monastery or 
convents learnt the rudiments of grammar, verbal style and the virtues of a 
devotional life through works of classical and religious Latin. In this period, 
some familiar genres of children‟s literature, such as lullabies and primers 
appeared for the first time. According to Lerer (2008: 60) 
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