J.K. Rowling used the initials J.K. as her author name on the Harry Potter books.
Rowling was born Joanne Rowling and did not originally have a middle name. Before publication, Bloomsbury asked her to use two initials, partly because the publisher thought a gender-neutral author name might appeal to young readers. She selected K in honor of her paternal grandmother, Kathleen.
The initials therefore do not represent a birth name written as “Joanne Kathleen Rowling.” Kathleen was not Rowling’s original middle name; it was added to create the author name J.K. Rowling. She has also published adult and crime fiction under other names, including her own name and Robert Galbraith.
The punctuation and spacing are generally written as J. K. Rowling or J.K. Rowling, depending on the style used. The initials became globally associated with the seven Harry Potter novels after the first book appeared in 1997.