The Perils of Being Named Harry Potter
Filed under: Harry Potter
There's an Eric Snider who writes about music and movies for a paper in Florida, and an Eric Snider who developed the Solitaire game that was ubiquitous on computers in the 1990s, and I've occasionally been mistaken for both of them. My lot in life is easy compared to someone named, for example, Harry Potter. London's Daily Mail has an amusing story about one such fellow, an unlucky lad who also happens to have a scar on his forehead (not lightning-shaped, though) and is the same age, 20, as Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the boy wizard in the movies.Harry Potter was 9 years old when the first Harry Potter book came out, and what began as a silly coincidence became a major annoyance as the series' popularity grew. (As big a deal as Pottermania is in the United States, I understand it's even bigger in the U.K.) He says he has trouble whenever he fills out a job application, and he had to show his girlfriend his passport when he first met her because she didn't believe that was really his name. On the other hand, his girlfriend's name is Philippa, so I'm not sure who's really worse off here.
Oh, and he says: "I've heard all the puns about my wand." (Unrelated fun Harry Potter game: When you read the books, mentally replace every use of the word "wand" with "wang." It never gets old!)
The newspaper says that while fictional Harry Potter got his scar in a battle with Voldemort, the real "Mr Potter ran into a lamppost aged 15." Why it matters that the lamppost was 15 years old, I don't know. How would they even know that??
It's gotta suck having the name Harry Potter, although this kid seems particularly humorless about it. "Harry" and "Potter" are both pretty common names, too -- there must be hundreds of Harry Potters out there, dozens in the U.K. alone. Are any Cinematical readers named Harry Potter? Do you go by Harold instead? Have you heard all the wand puns? I'm going to try to think some you haven't heard, just in case.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-23-2009 @ 12:20AM
Joao Barreto said...
this must be the funniest piece i ever read here and i surely follow you guys around. lol big time.
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10-23-2009 @ 7:36AM
j said...
(Side note: Who spams a blog? Honestly..)
I was watching a clip of the Monty Python Science Fiction film they did once which took up almost an entire episode. The one where everyone was turned into Scotsmen so the giant cheese could win Wimbledon. The first Englishman to be 'converted' was Harold Potter. Made me giggle.
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10-23-2009 @ 8:04AM
Mangorilla said...
I'm not a Harry Potter, but my last name rhymes with (Ferris)Bueller, so I can relate. Teachers, especially substitute teachers, just loved to take roll when I was in the class, or the classic "Anyone? Anyone?" line when we weren't responding to their liking, like they were the first ones to think of it. Ah, if I had a nickle... There would be many teachers with nickle related injuries.
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10-23-2009 @ 9:26AM
hoosh said...
I don't have the same name, but I look like Harry Potter. It gets annoying, so I am sure for that guy it would be tough, you just have to have a sense of humor about the whole thing. Otherwise it would just become unbearable.
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10-23-2009 @ 12:27PM
The Good Doctor said...
What about the father and son protagonists of 1986 movie Troll (justly forgotten prequel to the infamous Troll 2) - Harry Potters Sr. and Jr.? Junior even gets taught magic by a witch!
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10-23-2009 @ 8:01PM
Ray said...
Yeah, try looking like him. Harry Potter came out when I was 12 and it instantly became my new nickname at school. For years. You can change your name, but it's harder to change how you look.
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