J.K. Rowling’s birth name was Joanne Rowling. She was born Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, and grew up partly in the nearby village of Tutshill.
Rowling has explained that Bloomsbury wanted a two-initial pen name for the Harry Potter books because it was thought that some boys might be less likely to choose a book by a woman author. Her grandmother’s name was Kathleen, so Rowling used “K” as her second initial, although Kathleen was not her own middle name at birth.
The author is commonly called J.K. Rowling, but “Joanne” remains her given name. After marrying Neil Murray in 2001, she was also sometimes legally referred to as Joanne Murray. She later published crime novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
A common mix-up is assuming that the “K” stands for Rowling’s middle name. It was selected in honor of her grandmother, while her original birth name was simply Joanne Rowling.