Brian O'Nolan

Brian O'Nolan was an Irish novelist who went by the pen name Flann O'Brien. I once read one of his books, called The Third Policeman. It was great. O'Nolan also sometimes went by another pen name: Myles na gCopaleen. That doesn't roll off the tongue as well as Flann O'Brien.

I've always liked the idea of pen names. I once decided that my pen name could be Shon Adams, as a jumbled play on my real name. I would sometimes jokingly sign emails this way to a friend or two. I think I maybe even opened an email account under the false name. Then one day I googled "Shon Adams" and was disappointed to learn that Shon Adams already exists as a person. He's a rapper/producer from Oakland who goes by the stage name E-A-Ski. So he too has a pen name.

These days, everybody's got pen names. The internet is swarming with pen names.


This pen's name is Ana.
Photo: kenchanayo via Flickr (CC)