Harry Potter: where does the name of the Ravenclaw house come from?

One of the four Hogwarts School Houses is the Ravenclaw, which has counted among its members Professors Sibyl Trelawney and Gilderoy Lockhart or Ron, Harry and Hermione’s friend Luna Lovegood. But where does the name Ravenclaw come from?

Ravenclaw is the French translation of Ravenclaw, in reference to Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the founders of Hogwarts school. Literally, Ravenclaw translates to claw, pincer or talon for “claw” and raven for “raven”.

But then, why did you translate “Eagle’s Talon” for “Crow’s Talon”? They are not even the same family of birds, since the crow is a corvid, and the eagle an accipitridae.

The symbol of Ravenclaw students sows confusion, since it is described in the Harry Potter novels as representing a bronze eagle on an azure field (blue in heraldry).

Additionally, the virtues associated with Ravenclaw House – learning, wisdom, wit, and intellect – are more consistent with the crow, one of the most “learning” birds there is. It’s no coincidence that the Sorting Hat long hesitated to send the brilliant Hermione Granger to Ravenclaw, as she reveals in the fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

In order to explain this difference between eagle and raven, some fans have speculated that perhaps Ravenclaw was Rowena’s maiden name, thus explaining that the house symbol doesn’t agree with her proper name. The eagle may have come from the family of her possible husband.

There is also a much simpler theory that could explain this apparent inconsistency: “raven” can also refer to the color “jet black”. Ravenclaw would literally mean “black talon”, thus consistent with the symbol of the house, since eagles have black talons.

Do these theories seem plausible to you? Which one do you prefer ? Does the French translation, which corrects the obvious incongruity of the original version, seem like a betrayal to you? Your keyboards !