What is the name of Mary Shelley's father?

Mary Shelley’s father was William Godwin, an English philosopher, novelist, journalist, and political radical. He and Mary Wollstonecraft had one child together: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, who later became famous as Mary Shelley.

Godwin and Wollstonecraft married in 1797, shortly before Mary’s birth. Wollstonecraft died from complications only 11 days after giving birth, leaving Godwin to raise Mary and her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay. He later married Mary Jane Clairmont, whose daughter Claire became Mary’s stepsister.

Godwin gave Mary access to an unusually rich intellectual environment. His home and publishing business brought her into contact with books, writers, and political thinkers, while his own works—including An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice—strongly influenced radical Romantic culture. Percy Bysshe Shelley admired Godwin’s ideas and became closely connected with the family.

A frequent mix-up is confusing William Godwin with Percy Shelley, Mary’s husband, or Lord Byron, her literary companion in Geneva. Godwin was her father; Percy Shelley was her husband, and Byron helped inspire the ghost-story challenge that led to Frankenstein.