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Question of the Week: What Would Your Perfect Pen Name Be?

Question of the Week: What Would Your Perfect Pen Name Be?

If you wrote a novel and decided to publish it under another name, what would your ideal pseudonym be?

Would you make a gender switch à la the Brontë sisters, when Anne, Charlotte and Emily used Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell?

Would you choose a more dramatic name such as Ayn Rand (born Alisa Rosenbaum) did?

A meaningful word name like Mark Twain?

A singular name like Sapphire (the pen name of Ramona Lofton)?

A humorous nom de plume like Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler)?

Would the name reflect the genre—something different for a mystery, a children’s book, a poetic novel?

Would it relate at all to your real name?

Fantasy time!

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.