How to Create a Pen Name

courtesy of Clearly Ambiguous

By Jennifer Blanchard

Many fiction writers now and in the past have written under a pen name: Sophie Kinsella, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll.

A pen name can be a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd (especially if your real name is something common). It’s also a way to conceal your identity, which is important if you write across different genres or also write non-fiction.

But how do you come up with a pen name? How did these famous writers create their names?

Well…I don’t have an exact answer for that, per se. But I do have a bunch of ideas on how you can create a pen name for yourself:

• Use a nickname you’ve had forever
• Pick your favorite girl/boy name
• Use your middle name
• Use your sibling’s middle name
• Use a last name you wish was really yours
• Pick a name that is easy to write in cursive over and over again (making those book signings much easier, of course!)
• Randomly open the dictionary and pick a word off that page to use
• Use the name of your street as part of your name
• Use the name of your favorite childhood toy
• Use your mom’s maiden name
• Use your best friend’s first or last name
• Open the phonebook to a random page and pick a name
• Use your initials (ex: J.L. Blanchard)
• Use initials only for your first name (ex: H. Christine Lindblom)
• Use your favorite food (ex: Alexander Pickle)
• Pick something that rhymes
• Use your last name as a first name…and maybe also your first as a last (ex: Smith Jarrod)
• Ask your friends/family to think of something
• Buy a book of baby names and look through it ’til you find something good

Yes, these may all seem like goofy options (in a way, they are). But that’s the idea.

A pen name should be something that is extremely memorable. Otherwise you won’t stand out from the crowd (which is pretty important if you plan to make any money as a fiction writer).

Use these suggestions as a jumping off point for creating your pen name.

And remember, you can mix-and-match the suggestions, as well (for example, use your sibling’s middle name and part of your street name).

Do you have a pen name? How did you come up with it? Or if you don’t have one, do you now have some ideas for how to create one?