So I love love love your Slytherin's locket redesign, and in the comments of that post you mention JKR's lack of research specifically in regards to the name Salazar, and I'm lowkey curious to what the issue is?? (<- I hope that doesn't come off as rude, I just sometimes struggle to phrase things :P)
And no, it's not rude, my problems with the name Salazar are the nerdy sort that I don't expect everyone to know of the bat.
So, the name Salazar is a Spanish surname meaning "old hall", from the Basque words "sala," which means "hall," and "zahar," which means "old." Variations of the name started appearing around Castille and Navarre during the early Middle Ages (10th century).
JKR has stated she took the name from the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, who ruled from 1932 to 1968:
This is a name that makes zero sense for Salazar Slytherin to have due to:
It being a surname, not a first name, and at that time, it would've been very uncommon (read: not done) to use a surname as a first name. Using surnames as a first name is a much later trend, which the first accounts of that I found are from the 16th century.
There is no simple reason for an Anglo-Saxon or Briton wizard in the 10th century to be named Salazar. Sure, you can come up with some convoluted explanations and make it make sense, but that would be a headcanon to resolve this oversight on JKR's part. It's just a weird name choice, especially as the other founders all have pretty plausible Anglo-Saxon names:
Godric - an Anglo-Saxon name that mostly died out after the Norman Conquest. Means "god's ruler", derived from Old English god combined with ric "ruler, king"
Rowena - recorded by the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth to have been the name of a daughter of the Saxon chief Hengist, though, unconfirmed. Geoffrey possibly based the name on Old English hroð "fame" and wynn "joy" or Old Welsh ron "spear" and gwen "white".
Helga - From the Old Norse name Helgi, derived from heilagr meaning "holy, blessed". The name appears (with the spelling "Halga") in the Old English poem Beowulf. As the Danish ruled a good chunk of England under the Danelaw between the 9th and 11th centuries, a Norse name would've been very possible for Helga when she was born.
(Their surnames, of course, aren't real names, but they all sound fitting to the British Isles and have elements from Old English, Old Welsh, or Gaelic origin, except, again, Salazar Slytherin, whose last name is just a pun.
"Gryffudd" is a very old Welsh-Celtic name that shares similarities to "Gryffindor" (though "dore" is a French name suffix that came with the Norman Conquest, from what I gathered, so that annoys me too). For "Hufflepuff", "Hufford" is an Anglo-Saxon name, and "Puff" seems to be German, from what I gathered, but it makes more sense since Old English is a Germanic language, the Saxons were Germans, and it's easier to explain. As for "Ravenclaw", names like "Ravenscroft" are Anglo-Saxon as well, while names like "Clawraye" were found in Ireland as early as the 9th century, and the name itself is just in plain English. The closest I found to "Slytherin" was a post-Norman conquest surname, "Slyne" and the French surname "Therrien" which doesn't fit historically either. The reason I mention the Norman Conquest so much here is that it really affected surnames in England)
The point is, all of the other founders have first names that can be argued to be historically plausible and don't require much, if any, explanation — except Salazar, who has a Spanish surname as a first name at a time that would be very unlikely.
(except for the fact that the school is in Scotland, and they don't have particularly Gaelic names from the time, but whatever. At least everyone except Salazar is in the zip code...)
