Rowling’s first name is Jo, which is short for Joanne. When Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone first came out, her publisher thought the book would sell better to their target audience of young boys if they did not realize it was written by a woman. Therefore, instead of having the book be written by “Joanne Rowling,” she was asked to use her initials. Rowling obliged, but since she did not have a middle name, she decided to use her favorite grandmother’s name - Kathleen.