List of pen names
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of pen names used by notable people.
| Pen name | Real name | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Aapeli | Simo Puupponen | 20th century Finnish writer and chatty articler |
| Martín Adán | Rafael de la Fuente Benavides | Peruvian poet (1907 - 1985) |
| Æ | George William Russell | Irish poet (1867 - 1935) |
| Émile Ajar | Romain Gary | French author, only author to win the Prix Goncourt twice, once under his real name, and once under his pen name |
| Guillaume Apollinaire | Guillaume Albert Vladimir Apollinaire de Kostrowitzky | 20th-century French poet, writer, and art critic |
| Tudor Arghezi | Ion N. Theodorescu | 20th-century Romanian poet and children's author |
| Avi | Edward Irving Wortis | writer of children's books |
| Ba Jin | Li Yaotang) | 20th-century Chinese writer |
| Richard Bachman | Stephen King | 20th-century horror author |
| Banaphool, sometimes Banaphul | Balāi Chānd Mukhopādhyāy | Bengali author, playwright and poet |
| W. N. P. Barbellion | Bruce Frederick Cummings | 20th century diarist |
| Ion Barbu | Dan Barbilian | 20th century Romanian poet and mathematician |
| BB | Denys Watkins-Pitchford | 20th-century illustrator and children's book author |
| Beachcomber | John Bernard Arbuthnot, D. B. Wyndham-Lewis, J. B. Morton and William Hartston | Used for the surrealist humorous column "By the Way" in the Daily Express |
| Acton Bell | Anne Brontë | |
| Currer Bell | Charlotte Brontë | |
| Ellis Bell | Emily Brontë | |
| Anthony Boucher | William Anthony Parker White | American science fiction editor and writer of mystery novels and short stories |
| Nicolas Bourbaki | composite | A group of mainly French 20th-century mathematicians |
| Boz | Charles Dickens | 19th century British novelist |
| Kir Bulychev (Кир Булычёв) | Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheyko (Игорь Всеволодович Можейко) | 20th century Russian science fiction writer and historian |
| Anthony Burgess | John ['Jack'] Burgess Wilson | 20th century British writer |
| Tori Carrington | Tony Karayianni and Lori Schlachter Karayianni | American husband and wife romance novelists |
| Lewis Carroll | Charles Lutwidge Dodgson | 19th century British author, mathematician, Anglican clergyman, logician, and amateur photographer, writer of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" |
| Cassandra | William Connor | 20th century left-wing journalist for The Daily Mirror |
| Leslie Charteris | Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin | half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction such as the Simon Templar series |
| N.W. Clerk | C. S. Lewis | Used to publish A Grief Observed |
| Joseph Conrad | Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski | Late-19th/early-20th century Polish-born British novelist |
| Geoffrey Crayon | Washington Irving | Early 19th-century writer |
| Sue Denim | Dav Pilkey | Writer and illustrator of the popular "Captain Underpants" children's book series (Sue Denim is a parody of the word pseudonym) |
| Sue Denim | Lewis Shiner | science fiction writer |
| Carter Dickson | John Dickson Carr | 20th century author of detective stories |
| Chanakya | Jawaharlal Nehru | First Indian Prime Minister |
| Isak Dinesen | Karen Blixen | 20th century Danish author of "Out of Africa" |
| George Eliot | Mary Ann Evans | 19th century English novelist |
| Paul Éluard | Eugène Grindel | 20th century French Dada and Surrealist poet |
| Quinn Fawcett | Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Bill Fawcett | American mystery writers |
| C. S. Forester | Cecil Smith | 20th century writer of the Captain Horatio Hornblower novels, "The African Queen". and other novels |
| Anatole France | Jacques Anatole François Thibault | 20th century French author |
| Pat Frank | Harry Hart Frank | 20th century author of the apocalyptic novel Alas, Babylon |
| Nicci French | Nicci Gerard and Sean French | |
| Paul French | Isaac Asimov | U.S. science fiction author |
| Anthony Gilbert | Lucy Beatrice Malleson | British author of the Arthur Crook crime fiction novels |
| Clive Hamilton | C. S. Lewis | Used to publish Spirits in Bondage and Dymer prior |
| K. Hardesh | Clement Greenberg | 20th century American art critic |
| H.D. | Hilda Doolittle | 20th century American imagist poet, novelist and memoirist |
| O. Henry | William Sydney Porter | American author of short stories and novels |
| Hergé | Georges Remi | 20th century Belgian comics writer and artist, famous worldwide for creating the Tintin series of books |
| James Herriot | James Alfred Wight | 20th century British writer |
| Robin Hobb | Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden | 20th-century fantasy author |
| Erin Hunter | Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and Victoria Holmes | Authors of the fantasy novel series Warriors |
| Iceberg Slim | Robert Beck | African American writer |
| Jin Yong or Kam-yung | Louis Cha | 20th century Chinese-language novelist |
| Robert Jordan | James Oliver Rigney, Jr. | Author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series |
| Diedrich Knickerbocker | Washington Irving | Early 19th-century U.S. writer |
| T. H. Lain | Philip Athans and Bruce Cordell | a collective pseudonym used by nine separate authors writing under Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons novels imprint |
| Ann Landers | Esther Pauline Friedman | Advice columnist |
| Maiju Lassila | Algot Untola | 20th century Finnish author |
| Stan Lee | Stanley Martin Lieber | comic book pioneer |
| Murray Leinster | William Fitzgerald Jenkins | 20th century science fiction author |
| Theo. LeSieg | Theodor Seuss Geisel | 20th century American writer and cartoonist best known for his children's books |
| Megan Lindholm | Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden | 20th-century fantasy author |
| Lu Xun | Zhou Shuren | 20th century Chinese writer and cultural critic |
| Maddox | George Ouzounian | The Best Page in the Universe |
| Mao Dun | Shen Dehong | 20th century Chinese novelist, cultural critic, and journalist |
| Yukio Mishima | Hiraoka Kimitake | 20th century Japanese novelist, essayist, and playwright |
| Gabriela Mistral | Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga | Chilean poet, educator, diplomat and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1945 |
| Molière | Jean Baptiste Poquelin | 17th century French theatre writer, director and actor, and writer of comic satire |
| Multatuli | Eduard Douwes Dekker | Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar (1860) |
| P. Mustapää | Martti Haavio | 20th century Finnish poet |
| Natsume Sōseki | Natsume Kinnosuke | Early 20th century Japanese novelist |
| Pablo Neruda | Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto | 20th century Chilean poet, Nobel laureate |
| Gérard de Nerval | Gérard Labrunie | 19th century French poet, essayist and translator |
| Abu Nuwas | Hasin ibn Hani al Hakami | 8th century Arabic language poet (Persia) |
| George Orwell | Eric Arthur Blair | 20th century British author and essayist |
| Ouida | Marie Louise de la Ramée | 19th century English novelist |
| Lewis Padgett | Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore | American husband and wife science fiction writers |
| Papa Balloons | Dominic Mance | Author, artist and radio broadcaster who has chronicled his experiences as an international banker turned homeless vagabond |
| William Penn | Jeremiah Evarts | 19th century activist against Indian removal |
| Peyo | Pierre Culliford | 20th century creator of The Smurfs comics |
| Liisan-Antti ja Jussi Porilainen | Algot Untola | 20th century Finnish author |
| Petri Pykälä | Ilkka Remes | 20th and 21st-century Finnish writer |
| Q | Arthur Quiller-Couch | Late 19th and early 20th century British author, poet, and literary critic |
| Ellery Queen | Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee | 20th century detective fiction |
| Ayn Rand | Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum | 20th century fiction writer and creator of the philosophy "Objectivism" |
| Irmari Rantamala | Algot Untola | 20th century Finnish author |
| Pauline Réage | Anne Desclos | 20th century French author and critic who wrote Histoire d'O |
| Lester del Rey | Leonard Knapp | American science fiction author and editor |
| Henry Handel Richardson | Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson | Early 20th century Australian author |
| Robert O. Saber | Milton K. Ozaki | Mid-20th century journalist, author and detective novelist ("Dressed to Kill" [1954] and many others) |
| Saki | Hector Hugh Munro | Early 20th century British satirist |
| George Sand | Amandine Lucie Aurore Dupin | 19th century French novelist and early feminist |
| Sapphire | Ramona Lofton | 20th century African-American poet and author |
| Sayeh (ه. ا. سایه) | Hushang Ebtehaj | 20th century Iranian poet (هوشنگ ابتهاج) |
| Dr. Seuss | Theodor Seuss Geisel | 20th century American writer and cartoonist, best known for his children's books |
| Shahriar (شهریار) | Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Behjat-Tabrizi (Persian: سید محمدحسین بهجت تبریزی) | Iranian poet, writing in Persian and Azerbaijani |
| Sirin (and Vladimir Sirin) | Vladimir Nabokov | 20th century novelist, who used it early in his career |
| Cordwainer Smith | Paul M. A. Linebarger | 20th century science fiction author |
| Lemony Snicket | Daniel Handler | Author of A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Väinö Stenberg | Algot Untola | 20th century Finnish author |
| Stendhal | Marie-Henri Beyle | 19th century French writer |
| Anne Chaplet | Cora Stephan | 20th century German crime novelist and journalist |
| Max Stirner | Johann Kaspar Schmidt | 19th century German philosopher |
| Patience Strong | Winifred Emma May | 20th century English poet |
| Marton Taiga | Martti Löfberg | 20th century Finnish pulp writer, who also used several other pseudonyms |
| Juhani Tervapää | Hella Wuolijoki | 20th-century Estonian-born Finnish writer |
| Algoth Tietäväinen | Algot Untola | 20th century Finnish author |
| James Tiptree, Jr | Alice Sheldon | 20th century science fiction author |
| Toegye | Yi Hwang | 16th century Korean Confucian scholar |
| Tom Tomorrow | Dan Perkins | 20th century editorial cartoonist |
| Lazlo Toth | Don Novello | Author of the satiric "The Lazlo Letters" and other books; the name was taken from that of a deranged Hungarian-born Australian man who vandalized Michelangelo's statue Pieta in Rome |
| Trevanian | Dr. Rodney Whitaker | 20th century American spy novelist |
| Mark Twain | Samuel Langhorne Clemens | 19th century American humorist, writer and lecturer |
| Abigail Van Buren | Pauline Phillips and Jeanne Phillips | Mother and daughter advice columnists (Dear Abby) |
| J.I. Vatanen | Algot Untola | 20th century Finnish author |
| Voltaire | François-Marie Arouet | 18th century French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher |
| Walter | Henry Spencer Ashbee | 19th Century book collector, writer, bibliographer, and suspected author of My Secret Life, the sexual memoirs of a Victorian era gentleman |
| Wang Shiwei 王實味 | Wang Sidao 王思禱 | 20th century Chinese journalist and literary writer |
| Artemus Ward | Charles Farrar Browne | 19th century American humor writer |
| Ibn Warraq | various | This pen name has traditionally been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam, including a current writer from India |
| Mary Westmacott | Agatha Christie | 20th century British writer |
| Wonkette | Ana Marie Cox | Political gossip weblog writer |
| John Wyndham | John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris | post-apocalyptic British science fiction writer |
| Hajime Yatate | various | Sunrise animation staff members |
| Yulgok | Yi I | 16th century Korean Confucian scholar |
