Harry Potter: Voldemort's Name Is Absurd (And Adorable) If You Think About It

Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is the be-all-end-all of "Harry Potter" villains, a sinister foe so intimidating that few are willing to utter his name out of pure fear. His return is teased throughout the entire film franchise, with "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" finally giving moviegoers a look at the evil wizard in his full, snake-like glory. While he's undoubtedly horrifying to the eye and wields a worrisome amount of power, knowing how Voldemort could've come up with his own name certainly paints him in a far less fearsome light.

As Redditor u/TeslaK20 pointed out, Tom Marvolo Riddle — the Dark Lord's actual name — is comprised of the same letters as the phrase "I am Lord Voldemort." The implication here is that when Riddle was a young man and began to craft his villainous persona, he likely realized that the letters of his name spell out "I am Lord," prompting him to spend way too much time scrambling the remaining letters to create the coolest-sounding bad guy name he could. With that, he became Lord Voldemort in the goofiest and somewhat most adorable way possible.

Despite his name's potentially cheesy origin, at least when you break it down, Voldemort contains an intimidating phrase that's appropriate for the character.

The image of a young Tom Riddle switching around the letters in his name to create his Lord Voldemort persona is undeniably funny. It does also take some of the venom out of his widely-feared moniker, but not all of it. If one is to break down the name Voldemort into three distinct parts, it actually creates a phrase that's very much fitting of the character and his history. Using French as a guide, the name can be broken up into the parts "vol," "de," and "mort," which roughly translate to "flight," "of" or "from," and "death."

So, doing this gives us the phrase "flight of death" or "flight from death," but how does this connect to Voldemort? As he continues his pure-blood supremacy-fueled reign of terror, his exploits bring him to the Potter household, where he attempts to kill Harry but fails. He's torn from his physical body, but he manages to evade true death thanks to the several horcruxes: artifacts that store fragments of a magic user's soul to effectively make them immortal. They're used to bring about his return, allowing him to flee from death itself.

Even though his name could have a funny origin, Lord Voldemort is still as striking an alias as so many in the Wizarding World make it out to be.