Lord Voldemort was the son of Merope Gaunt (a descendant of Salazar Slytherin) and Tom Riddle, a handsome, aristocratic Muggle from Little Hangleton whom Merope enchanted with a love potion. When her husband discovered she was a witch, he dumped her when she was pregnant (HBP10). Tom's mother died soon after giving birth to him on December 31, only living long enough to name him Tom Riddle after his father and Marvolo after his grandpa.

The half-blood orphan, Tom Marvolo Riddle, intended to turn into Lord Voldemort and seize control of the Wizarding world by exploiting the smoldering relationship between pureblood and Muggle-born wizards. He would eventually lose everything, not because he lacked power, but because of his brutal ways, inability to love or trust anybody other than himself, and confidence in his own infallibility. He thought that "there is no good and evil, only power, and those too weak to seek it," as he informed Quirrell.