Quote:
Originally Posted by Tog_
It looks like I had some of the steps a bit out line, but then one question still remains. If Ginny, Ron, Hermoinie and everyone in the wizarding world except Harry knew that it was bad to say Voldemort, wouldn't they all have known it was equally wrong to mention Tom Riddle, at least to the point that when Ginny first met him in the book, something should have clicked?
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It's not necessarily true that the whole wizarding world would have known of Tom Riddle. But wizards of Riddle's generation who attended Hogwarts would have recognized the name, and may well have accepted Riddle's decision to change his name.
Folks of other generations, however, might not have become aware of Voldemort prior to his rise to power, which happened well after the name change.
Very few people had the courage to resist Voldemort in any way, to the point of being unwilling to so much as pronounce his chosen name. Only one person who'd known him prior to his name change was ever willing to defy him
openly. There seemed to be no (surviving) members of the Order of the Phoenix of Riddle's immediate generation, and even they wouldn't speak of Voldemort by name.
So while some older wizards would certainly recognize the name "Tom Riddle" had they encountered it, very few would be willing to admit it. Certainly none would volunteer that information to Harry. And neither Harry nor Ginny ever brought it up outside of their closest circle of friends.