J.K. Rowling’s first name is Joanne; the published initials stand for Joanne Kathleen Rowling.
Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. She did not have a middle name at birth. Bloomsbury asked her to use two initials on the cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone because the publisher believed some young boys might avoid a book written by a woman.
Rowling chose Kathleen as her second initial in honour of her paternal grandmother, Kathleen Ada Bulgen. The resulting author name, J.K. Rowling, became internationally recognized when the Harry Potter series achieved global success.
The name is sometimes expanded incorrectly or treated as though “K” were Rowling’s original middle initial. Joanne is the author’s given first name, while Kathleen was adopted for professional use. Rowling has also published crime novels under the name Robert Galbraith, making her author identity a frequent subject of publishing trivia.