What was Georgia O'Keeffe's maiden name?

Georgia O'Keeffe’s maiden name was O'Keeffe.

She was born Georgia Totto O'Keeffe, and O'Keeffe was her family surname from birth. The name is sometimes mistaken for a married surname because she married the photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1924, but she did not become known professionally as Georgia Stieglitz.

Her middle name, Totto, came from her maternal family and is another detail that can cause confusion in biographies. O'Keeffe consistently built her professional identity around her birth surname.

The artist’s name is also written with an apostrophe and a capital K: O'Keeffe. She signed and exhibited work under that name throughout her career. Her distinctive signature helped make the surname one of the most recognizable in twentieth-century American art.