Only true Harry Potter fans will have spotted this cool detail about the founder of Ilvermorny House

JK Rowling has come up with yet another great Harry Potter name in Isolt Sayre

Published: Monday, 4 July 2016 at 11:42 am

If there's one author who pays incredibly close attention to her characters' names, it's JK Rowling. There's so often something clever about her choice of moniker in the Harry Potter novels, from the lupine Remus Lupin to the perplexing Tom Marvolo Riddle.

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Well, the author is at it again, as this smart little detail about American wizarding school Ilvermorney shows.

Ilvermorny's origin can be traced back to a pure-blood Irish girl named Isolt Sayre. Born around 1603, she was obsessed with Hogwarts and fantasised about going to school, according to new information released by Rowling online.

Sayre cut off her hair and fled to America on the Mayflower, pretending to be a Muggle boy named Elias Story. She later went on to found the US Hogwarts.

Clever, eh?

Now, if you look carefully... Isolt Sayre is an anagram of Elias Story, pointed out in this sharp-eyed Reddit post.

What's even cooler is that Elias Story was a real historical figure, who died during his first winter in America in around 1620 after sailing on the Mayflower.

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It looks like Rowling looked at a list of passengers and created Isolt's character's name from that.

Authors

Radio Times Staff

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