Confession: I regret using my given name on my debut books. If you think that sounds strange, you can’t imagine how strange it feels to admit it. Ever since I was ten years old, I swore I’d see MEGAN FUENTES on royalty checks someday. At the same time, I remember falling in love with long, romantic names and pinning them on my characters like boutonnieres, so maybe it was only a matter of time before I manifested the desire to pin them on myself, too.
Now that I understand the benefits of a pen name and have invented too many to count, I can give you five ideas for coming up with your own.
Use a Variation of Your Name
If you want your pen name to have a lot of “you” in it, this option is for you! Your pen name can play on:
- Diminutives or Shortenings (Sarah Stanford-Jamison writing as Sadie St. James)
- Initials (Sarah Stanford-Jamison writing as S.J. Stanford)
- Anagrams or Potential Anagrams (Sarah Stanford-Jamison writing as Rita S. Hanson)
Borrow From a Loved One
Did a beloved grandmother push you to write your novel? Do you wish to honor a best friend who passed away before they could see your name in print? Do you want to give the ultimate thank-you gift to the uncle who helped pay for your MFA? This is one way to do that, just use any of the techniques already listed above, or swap your first/last name for theirs.
Play with Hidden Meanings
Here’s where the name nerd in me really comes out to play! You can use advanced search on sites like Behind the Name or Nameberry to search by meaning to come up with names that suit your author persona the same way you might for a character. Here are a few just-for-fun examples:
- Avery Holt for a fantasy author
- Sheridan Sharp for a mystery author
- Sheridan means “searcher”
- Sharp as in smart or clever
- Wouldn’t it be cool if this was also the name of your sleuth, and you wrote it as though you were Sheridan writing in your journal about your case? That’s what I thought of, anyway.
- Ivy Chastain for a sweet holiday romance author
- Ivy is a plant associated with winter and means “faithfulness” in the language of flowers
- Chastain means “chestnut tree,” as in, “chestnuts roasting on an open fire”
Wink with an Inside Joke
Every good list needs a just-for-fun addition! My own future steamy romance pen name, Daphne Cole, came about after my partner told me he had a childhood crush on Velma from Scooby-Doo. I thought Daphne was a sexier name, and Cole just looked good next to it on the literal dozens of mock-up covers I made on Canva while procrastinating.
You’d never know these things if you just glanced at the name, but I might be inclined to let my loyal readers know in a blog post or a newsletter! Once you’ve let your readers in on the joke, these kinds of inside jokes can endear your readers to you. Who doesn’t love to whip out trivia or a fun fact when others least expect it?
Have Fun with Random Generators
If you don’t want to put a lot of thought into your pen name—maybe because you’re writing a one-off short story—then random generators are the perfect tool to get you what you want fast. You might have to click a few times to land on something good, but you will land on something funny. Here are a few of my favorite tools for this:
