Pen names and the names writers chose
A pen name is the rarest thing in naming: a name someone chose for themselves. Every entry here is a small story about why a writer picked the name they picked. Mark, from a riverboat call for safe water. George, so Victorian readers would take a woman's novels seriously. Toni, a college nickname a publisher printed by mistake and never took back.
Mark From Marcus, of Mars, the Roman god of war; famously borne by Mark Twain, the name Samuel Clemens drew from a Mississippi riverboat call for safe water.
George Greek for farmer or earth-worker; famously borne by George Eliot, the name Mary Ann Evans built from her partner George Lewes and a surname she called mouth-filling.
Toni A short form of Antonia, from the Roman name Antonius; famously borne by Toni Morrison, whose baptismal name Anthony became the nickname her publisher printed.
Maya Here a childhood nickname, her brother's way of saying my sister; famously borne by Maya Angelou, who kept the name her brother gave her for life.
Colette A French pet form of Nicole; famously borne by Colette, whose first novels appeared under her husband's pen name before she published under her own family name.
Nora A short form of Eleanor or Honora; famously borne by Nora Roberts, the name Eleanor Robertson has published more than 200 novels under.
Ichiyo Japanese for one leaf; famously borne by Ichiyo Higuchi, who took the name at nineteen and became the first prominent woman writer of modern Japan.
Ayn By her own account adapted from a Finnish woman's name; famously borne by Ayn Rand, who was signing it years before the Remington Rand typewriter of the myth existed.
Fiona From Gaelic fionn, fair, and unknown before the Romantic era; forever tied to Fiona Macleod, the woman writer William Sharp invented and impersonated for a decade.
Gabriela From Gabriel, Hebrew for God is my strength; famously borne by Gabriela Mistral, whose pen name honors either two poets she loved or the archangel and the mistral wind.
Anne From Hannah, Hebrew for grace; famously borne by Anne Rice, born Howard, who told a nun on her first day of school that her name was Anne and made it stick.
Pamela Coined by Philip Sidney, usually read as Greek for all sweetness; famously borne by P.L. Travers, born Helen Goff, who chose it as a young actress simply for its sound.
Victoria Latin for victory; famously borne by Victoria Holt, one of at least seven names Eleanor Hibbert wrote under, a different one for each genre she worked in.
Ouida A child's own mispronunciation of Louise, spelled the way she said it; famously borne by Ouida, who published more than forty novels under the name.
Eileen An anglicized Irish form of Eibhlin, from Norman French Aveline; famously borne by Eileen Chang, the school name her mother gave her, rendered in Chinese as Ailing.
Silence An English Puritan virtue name; famously borne by Silence Dogood, the middle-aged widow a sixteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin invented to get published.
Josephine A feminine form of Joseph; famously borne by Josephine Tey, built by Elizabeth MacKintosh from her mother's first name and a great-great-grandmother's surname.
Fanny A pet form of Frances; famously borne by Fanny Fern, who said the name came from childhood memories of her mother gathering sweet fern.
Renee French for reborn, from Latin renatus; famously borne by Renee Vivien, who first published as the ambiguous R. Vivien before letting the woman's name stand.
Langston An English surname meaning long stone; famously borne by Langston Hughes, who wrote under his third given name, carried down from his abolitionist Langston forebears.
Lewis The English form of Louis, famous warrior; famously borne by Lewis Carroll, a Latin reworking of Charles Lutwidge that his editor picked from a list of four.
Richard Germanic for brave ruler; famously borne by Richard Bachman, the name Stephen King improvised from a novel on his desk and a band on the record player.
Robert Germanic for bright fame; famously borne by Robert Galbraith, the crime writer J.K. Rowling invented, named partly for her hero Robert F. Kennedy.
Isak Hebrew for he laughs, the root of Isaac; famously borne by Isak Dinesen, the man's name Karen Blixen chose to be taken seriously abroad.
Chinua A shortened Igbo name meaning roughly may God fight on my behalf; famously borne by Chinua Achebe, who dropped Albert, the colonial name his parents gave him.
Andre The French form of Andrew; famously borne by Andre Norton, the name Alice Norton took legally because publishers said boys would not read a woman.
James From Jacob, Hebrew for supplanter; famously borne by James Tiptree Jr., whose surname Alice Sheldon lifted off a marmalade jar and hid behind until 1977.
Marko From Marcus, paired with the Ukrainian for little wolf; famously borne by Marko Vovchok, the man's name Maria Vilinska's own mentor gave her.
Vernon From an old French place name; famously borne by Vernon Lee, the man's name Violet Paget took at nineteen so her art criticism would be read at all.
Pablo From Latin Paulus, small or humble; famously borne by Pablo Neruda, the name a teenage poet is said to have taken so his father would not learn he wrote verse.
Currer An English surname of unknown borrowing; famously borne by Currer Bell, the deliberately sexless name Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre under.
Ellis An English form of Elijah; famously borne by Ellis Bell, the name behind which Emily Bronte published Wuthering Heights.
Acton An English place name meaning settlement by the oak trees; famously borne by Acton Bell, the name Anne Bronte published Agnes Grey under.
Voltaire Of disputed origin, perhaps an anagram of Arouet le jeune; famously borne by Voltaire, taken by Francois-Marie Arouet after eleven months in the Bastille.
Stendhal Taken from Stendal, the German town of a scholar he admired; famously borne by Stendhal, one of more than a hundred pen names Marie-Henri Beyle used.
Novalis Latin for one who clears new land, an old family name; famously borne by Novalis, the ancestral name the German Romantic poet revived for himself.
Saki Origin unknown, perhaps the Persian cupbearer of the Rubaiyat, perhaps a monkey; forever tied to Saki, the pen name H.H. Munro never explained.
Seuss His own mother's maiden name, not an invention; famously borne by Dr. Seuss, which Theodor Geisel began using after his college paper banned him by his real name.
Carson A Scottish surname now widely used as a first name; famously borne by Carson McCullers, who dropped Lula in her teens and kept only her middle name.
Premchand Hindi for moon of love; famously borne by Premchand, the new name he took after British censors banned and burned his first book.
Daniel Hebrew for God is my judge, with the German for star; famously borne by Daniel Stern, the man's name Marie d'Agoult used for her history of the 1848 revolution.
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