Pen Name Generator

How to use the pen name generator

1. Pick your genre and a style. Classic, modern, bold, soft or neutral. Each genre leans toward names that suit it, so a thriller gets punchier names than a cozy mystery.
2. Narrow it down if you like: a name background, gender-neutral first names, initials like J. R. Hale, or a length limit so it fits your cover.
3. Build from your own name (optional). Add your name, a middle name or a place you love to get variations on them.
4. Heart the ones you like. Favorites stay on this page only. Generate more for 20 new names each time, or ask for a few extra ideas from AI.

Names that match a well-known author or public figure are taken out. We don't check whether a name is already in use, so check your favorites before you commit.

How to choose a pen name

• Fit the genre. Readers judge a cover in a second, and the name is part of it. Soft, classic names suit romance and cozy mysteries; short, hard-sounding names suit thrillers; plain, credible names suit business and self-help.
• Make it easy to say and spell. Readers who can't spell your name can't search for it.
• Keep it short enough for a cover. A long name gets small on a thumbnail. Under about 18 characters is easiest.
• Make it searchable. A name shared with a famous person will bury you in search results. KDP itself suggests a pen name, a middle name or an initial if your name is close to a popular author's.
• Think long term. You'll use it on every book in that series or genre, and on your Author Page.

Should you use a pen name?

There are good reasons to: keeping your writing separate from your job, writing in a very different genre from your other books, privacy, or a real name that's hard to spell or shared with someone well known. On KDP, your pen name appears on the book, while your real name stays in your account for payments and taxes, and isn't published on Amazon.

There are good reasons not to, as well. Your own name connects your books with your work, talks and social media, and nonfiction authors often sell on who they are. Running more than one name also means more pages and profiles to keep up.

Check your pen name before you use it

KDP doesn't let you change the author name on a book once it's published, so check first:

• Search Amazon and Google for the name, in quotes, to see if another author already uses it.
• Look up the domain and the social handles you'd want, like Instagram or X.
• Search a trademark database if you plan to build a brand around the name.
• Check your local rules if you'll trade or sign contracts under it. Some places have rules about business names; this isn't legal advice.

Once you've picked one, the author bio generator writes your bio under it, and Koobe can put it on the covers it designs.