What year was J.K. Rowling born?

What year was J.K. Rowling born? J.K. Rowling was born in 1965.

Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965 in England. Sources vary over whether the precise location should be identified as Yate or nearby Chipping Sodbury, but the year is consistently given as 1965. She later adopted the pen name J.K. Rowling before publishing the Harry Potter books.

Rowling began writing the first Harry Potter novel during the 1990s. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997, launching a seven-book series that became a global publishing phenomenon. The final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, appeared in 2007.

The initials “J.K.” were used at the publisher’s suggestion because a gender-neutral name was thought to appeal to boys. Rowling’s middle initial does not represent a birth middle name: the “K” refers to Kathleen, her paternal grandmother. Her birth year is sometimes confused with the publication dates of the novels, but 1965 is the correct answer.