# Shortest and longest author names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224 "2012-03-19T13:40:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/1 "2012-03-19T13:40:33Z")
I’ve just been reading some fiction by [Ken Liu](http://kenliu.name/) and realized he may have the shortest name in science fiction (tied with [Tony Pi](http://www.eyrie.org/~pi/)). Who are other authors with short names? Also who have long names? I’m thinking of [Susan Hanniford Crowley](http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com/), but there’s probably someone who beats her. Only count names used on the byline, otherwise Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth would be impossible to beat (she wrote as Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth). ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/2 "2012-03-19T14:18:56Z")
If initials count H. A. Rey, author of the Curious George books, is the shortest I can think of. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/3 "2012-03-19T14:36:30Z")
[Saki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki) is the shortest one that came to mind for me. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/4 "2012-03-19T14:47:25Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Only count names used on the byline, otherwise Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth would be impossible to beat (she wrote as Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth). How can we not mention **Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany** (aka Lord Dunsany), though? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/5 "2012-03-19T15:11:29Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > [Saki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki) is the shortest one that came to mind for me. If pen names count, then Dickens had him beat when he went by Boz. How about Li Po? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/6 "2012-03-19T15:14:38Z")
There’s [Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._P._Somtow), aka S.P. Somtow. Although wiki is annoyingly missing mention of his Inquest series, far better than Mallworld. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/7 "2012-03-19T15:17:30Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > If pen names count, then Dickens had him beat when he went by Boz. > > How about Li Po? I knew I was forgetting someone. The OP sayd ‘only names used on the byline,’ so presumably pen-names would count. Saki almost always published as Saki, except in one short story where he wrote as HHM, and Dickens wrote as Boz a lot too, though obviously it’s not the name he’s known by best. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/8 "2012-03-19T15:27:07Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I knew I was forgetting someone. > > The OP sayd ‘only names used on the byline,’ so presumably pen-names would count. It is a shame Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes OBE doesn’t publish under his full name. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/9 "2012-03-19T16:17:17Z")
[John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wyndham) used all of his names at one point of another, but the most he used at once was “John Benyon Harris.” He also wrote as John Wyndham (best known), John Benyon, Lucas Parkes, and Wyndham Parkes. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/10 "2012-03-19T16:21:42Z")
I wonder if Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi has a ghostwritten celebrity autobiography or something similar out there. (Alexander Siddig). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/11 "2012-03-19T16:35:12Z")
A fun way to do it is to go to [AllRomanceWriters.com](http://www.allromancewriters.com/authors.cfm) and use their search engine, which brings up a list of names for each letter. Then see which one sticks out the farthest right. Under M I see: Deborah Anne MacGillivray Patrica Kathleen McCarthy Karen E. Quinones Miller Stephanie Perry Moore Courtney Allison Moulton Victoria Christopher Murray Antoinette Stockenberg wins among two-named writers. I only checked out a couple of letters, though. On the short end, in the early 1970s _The Sensuous Woman_ by “J” caused a sensation. It was followed by _The Sensuous Man_ by “M” and a parody, _The Sensuous Dirty Old Man_, by “Dr. A” who was of course Isaac Asimov. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/12 "2012-03-19T17:26:23Z")
Scientific author [Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarck). Books published anonymously (of which there have been many) have the shortest possible author name. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/13 "2012-03-19T17:39:26Z")
Here are some of the shortest pen-names or pseudonyms ever used: B (used by N.G. Ridgely) D (used by Hem Day) E (used by Mark Oliver Everett) M (used by Adrian M. Calinescu) N (used by Edward Duffield Neill) O (used by Lionel James) Q (used by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch) S (used by Johann Josias Sucro) V (used by Mrs Archer Clive) X (used by T.W.H. Crosland) Y (used by Maurice Larrouy) This is a very incomplete list – and the full names of some people using one-letter names are sometimes unknown. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/14 "2012-03-19T23:11:07Z")
[U Nu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_Nu), the Burmese political leader, wrote several books, of which probably the best known was _The People Win Through_ (1951). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/15 "2012-03-19T23:21:18Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > [U Nu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_Nu), the Burmese political leader, wrote several books, of which probably the best known was _The People Win Through_ (1951). Honestly, I did not know that at all. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/16 "2012-03-20T09:28:01Z")
The Spanish “Golden Century” has quite a few long names: Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio is one of the longest word-wise, having a three-word first lastname, but Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra beats him for total LEN count even without the optional “y”. Note that the names given for some of them in Wikipedia look like they pile up four (Quevedo) or eight (Calderón de la Barca) lastnames, rather than the now-customary two. Both of these wrote under names shorter than the Wikipedia-listed monstrosities; my father could recite his first 32 lastnames by rote but that doesn’t mean his “full name” involved that whole list! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/17 "2012-03-20T11:27:42Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > [U Nu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_Nu), the Burmese political leader, wrote several books, of which probably the best known was _The People Win Through_ (1951). Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-and-longest-author-names/616224/18 "2012-03-20T20:18:52Z")
Mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark has her mother Mary Higgins Clark beat by one letter.