Oct-04-2010, 05:34 PM (UTC)
I know the "her name is actually" line gets mentioned a lot, but I'm a bit suspicious of it. I don't actually know if that is her official name (nor do I know how the US system for names works regarding what is one's "real name"). I know that she gets her mail even if you address it to "Robin Hobb" as long as the actual address is correct, but that's not the name she is listed under in the phone book. 
Whether the phone book name is her official name... I do not know either. What I mean to say is that I suspect that M.A.L.O. has been thrown together by someone writing an article about her and then people have just copied that information everywhere. But this is just a theory of mine, it could very well really be her whole name.
Anyway, to help people to understand where all the parts of that name come from: Margaret and Astrid are obviously first names - and might I add, very typical Scandinavian names. If I've understood correctly, her mother (though herself from the UK) had roots in Sweden. We also know as a fact that Lindholm is her maiden name and Ogden is the surname of her husband Fred.
"Megan" of Megan Lindholm obviously comes from Margaret so that pen name might just be explained simply as what she was called before she got married. Whether her maiden name is still part of her official name I do not know. Also, this might seem surprising now that the Lindholm books are all marketed with "who also writes as RH" all over the covers, but the fact that Megan Lindholm = Robin Hobb was actually a quite well kept secret through the years of publishing the Farseer trilogy!
I'd bet a lot of people in ~real life~ call her Margaret or Megan. I've understood that very few people in her social circles outside the family actually know that she writes as Robin Hobb even if they know she's a writer. Most fans seem to address her as Robin.
Whether the phone book name is her official name... I do not know either. What I mean to say is that I suspect that M.A.L.O. has been thrown together by someone writing an article about her and then people have just copied that information everywhere. But this is just a theory of mine, it could very well really be her whole name.Anyway, to help people to understand where all the parts of that name come from: Margaret and Astrid are obviously first names - and might I add, very typical Scandinavian names. If I've understood correctly, her mother (though herself from the UK) had roots in Sweden. We also know as a fact that Lindholm is her maiden name and Ogden is the surname of her husband Fred.
"Megan" of Megan Lindholm obviously comes from Margaret so that pen name might just be explained simply as what she was called before she got married. Whether her maiden name is still part of her official name I do not know. Also, this might seem surprising now that the Lindholm books are all marketed with "who also writes as RH" all over the covers, but the fact that Megan Lindholm = Robin Hobb was actually a quite well kept secret through the years of publishing the Farseer trilogy!
I'd bet a lot of people in ~real life~ call her Margaret or Megan. I've understood that very few people in her social circles outside the family actually know that she writes as Robin Hobb even if they know she's a writer. Most fans seem to address her as Robin.
"Green nubs on the dry sticks of the clematis promised that the appearance of death was not death itself." - Ship of Destiny
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