What is J.K. Rowling’s middle initial “K” associated with?

J.K. Rowling’s middle initial “K” honors her paternal grandmother, Kathleen.

Rowling was born Joanne Rowling and did not originally have a middle name beginning with K. Bloomsbury asked her to use initials on the cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, partly because the publisher thought boys might be less likely to choose a book by a female author.

Rowling selected Kathleen, the name of her father’s mother, creating the professional name J.K. Rowling. She has said that the initial was not intended to conceal a particular legal middle name from childhood.

The name is often mistakenly expanded as “Katherine” or treated as part of her birth name. Her formal author name is also distinct from Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym she used for her crime fiction.