Interesting: Merope Gaunt

[pegkerr]

I ran across the source today for Rowling's choice of the name for Tom Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt. I remember thinking to myself when I read the name, Merope? What kind of a name is Merope? I got my Word of the Day email this morning and this caught my eye:

pleiad -
MEANING:
noun: A group of (usually seven) brilliant persons or things.

ETYMOLOGY:
After the Pleiades, the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione in Greek mythology. These seven sisters were Maia, Electra, Celaeno, Taygete, Merope, Alcyone, and Sterope. In one version of the myth, they killed themselves out of grief over the loss of their half sisters the Hyades, and were turned into a group of stars. In another version, they were placed among the stars to protect them from the hunter Orion, though he too became a star to continue to pursue them. Only six of the seven sisters shine brightly in the Pleiades star cluster. The other one is supposed to be Merope, hiding in shame for loving a mortal, or Electra, mourning the death of her son Dardanus. [emphasis added]

Brilliant. Yet another example of Rowling's careful attention to names.