Georgia O’Keeffe’s middle name was Totto.
She was born Georgia Totto O’Keeffe on November 15, 1887, near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. “Totto” came from her maternal grandfather, George Victor Totto, whose family had roots in Hungary. O’Keeffe generally used only her first and last names professionally, so her middle name is less familiar than her paintings.
O’Keeffe became one of the most important American modernist artists of the twentieth century. Her career included enlarged flower paintings, New York skyscrapers, animal bones, and landscapes of New Mexico. Her name is sometimes written with an apostrophe as “O’Keeffe,” although older sources may use different typographic forms.
The middle name “Totto” should not be confused with a nickname or an art-world pseudonym. It was part of her legal birth name, while “Georgia O’Keeffe” became the name associated with her public career and signed works.