Here are 10 Severus Snape facts. These have been revealed (mostly by J.K Rowling) from outside of the Harry Potter books. NOTE: Check out my Youtube video on this topic if you prefer to watch instead of read!
10 Snape Facts
1) The latin translation for ‘Severus’ fits him well.
In Latin, ‘Severus’ translates to ‘stern’ or ‘harsh’, which fits Snape’s teaching style well.
- SOURCE: https://www.harrypotter.com/features/etymology-of-defence-against-the-dark-arts-professor-names
2) The Old Norse translation for Snape also fits him well
‘To Snape’ is an English verb that means “to be hard upon, rebuke, revile, snub”. This is inspired by the Old Norse word ‘sneypa’ which means ‘to outrage, dishonour, disgrace’:
To be hard upon definitely describes Snape’s teaching style as well.
3) The name ‘Snape’ was inspired by an ‘English village’.
J.K. Rowling has said that Snape’s name comes from an English village in Suffolk.
As of 2011, the population of Snape, Suffolk was 611 people.
4) A new species of crab was named after Snape
In 2017, a new species of crab was named after Snape, called Harryplax severus.
This species of crab managed to stay hidden for 20 years, which is where it gets the inspiration from the Harry Potter novels. That is because Snape’s true intentions were able to stay hidden from the Death Eaters for 20 years.
- SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/27/harry-potter-name-species-crab-harryplax-severus-severus-snape
5) The character of Snape is loosely based on a teacher that J.K Rowling had
John Nettleship was the head of science at the Wyedean School and taught Rowling Chemistry while she attended the school.
During an interview, Nettleship revealed that he was first alerted to the comparison when a reporter came to his door and asked “you’re Professor Snape aren’t you?”. He told his wife that some people think that he is Snape and she responded by saying that she knew but didn’t want to tell him.
“The first I knew was when a reporter from a national newspaper knocked on the door seven years ago and said: ‘You’re Professor Snape aren’t you’,” said the former head of science.
“I suppose I was quite strict as a teacher, but I said to my wife, ‘she thinks I’m Professor Snape’. She said ‘of course you are, but I didn’t want to tell you’.
6) Chemistry was J.K Rowling’s least favorite subject when she was in school. That is why Snape taught potions class, the Wizarding equivalent of chemistry.
Here is a quote from Rowling;
Chemistry was my least favourite subject at school, and I gave it up as soon as I could. Naturally when I was trying to decide which subject Harry’s arch-enemy, Severus Snape, should teach, it had to be the wizarding equivalent. This makes it all the stranger that I found Snape’s introduction to his subject quite compelling (‘I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death…’), apparently part of me found Potions quite as interesting as Snape did; and indeed I enjoyed creating potions in the books, and researching ingredients for them.
- SOURCE: https://www.harrypotter.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/potions
7) Snape was born on January 9th, 1960.
Snape shares a birthday with Kate Middleton, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Page, Nina Dobrev, and Imelda Staunton, who played Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films.
- SOURCE: https://www.famousbirthdays.com/january9.html
8) Snape has a very specific smell.
J.K Rowling was asked what Snape would smell like. She responded by saying “bitterness and old shoes”.
- SOURCE: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/649916309405335552?lang=en
9) J.K Rowling has said that Snape was one of the characters that she had the most fun writing.
Here is a Q&A with Rowling:
Q: Who’s your favorite character besides Harry Potter?
A: It’s very hard to choose. It’s fun to write about Snape because he’s a deeply horrible person.
10) Snape was NOT a Vampire.
There was a fan theory floating around that suggested Snape was a vampire. This was because he was often described as looking like a bat, his skin is pale and he is never shown eating. JK Rowling has since refuted this theory, saying that it is not true.
‘For a long time there was a persistent fan rumour that Snape might be a vampire,’ she wrote. ‘While it is true that he has an unhealthy pallor, and is sometimes described as looking like a large bat in his long black cloak, he never actually turns into a bat, we meet him outside the castle by daylight, and no corpses with puncture marks in their necks ever turn up at Hogwarts.’
- SOURCE: https://www.harrypotter.com/features/some-interesting-facts-you-may-not-have-known-about-severus-snape
Did you know all of these? Let me know in the comments or on my Youtube channel.