What does the 'L' in L. Frank Baum stand for?

The “L” in L. Frank Baum stands for Lyman.

Baum was born Lyman Frank Baum on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. Lyman was the name of his father’s brother, Lyman Spaulding Baum. Baum disliked the formal first name and preferred to use his middle name, Frank, in everyday and professional life.

His published name, L. Frank Baum, became closely associated with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, issued in 1900. He went on to write 14 Oz books, along with dozens of other novels, short stories, poems, and scripts. The initial preserved a part of his legal name while allowing him to foreground the name he preferred.

Readers sometimes guess Lawrence because “L. Frank” resembles a conventional authorial middle initial, but Lawrence was not his birth name. Louis can also cause confusion because Baum used Louis F. Baum as one of several pseudonyms.