Nobel Novelist Toni Morrison’s Puzzling Pseudonyms: Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, wrongly reported as Chloe Anthony Wofford, plus four reasons for Toni

Author’s pseudonyms have been a recurrent subject in this blog, because a pseudonym may be the name of an alternate personality. And since Toni Morrison may have claimed two different birth names, and “Toni” is a pseudonym, her use of names is worth considering.

Toni Morrison’s birth name was Chloe Ardelia Wofford, so why do so many articles about her say that it was Chloe Anthony Wofford? She must have fostered this mistake or let it pass on many occasions. Are Chloe Ardelia and Chloe Anthony two different personalities?

And how did Chloe become Toni? There seem to be four explanations. First, people mispronounced Chloe as Toni. Second, at age 12, she chose the baptismal name of St. Anthony of Padua (the patron saint of finding lost things and people), and she got Toni from this name. Third, her middle name is Anthony (but this isn’t true). Fourth, one of her early manuscripts had the name Toni, and by the time she told the publisher to use Chloe, it was too late, so she became known as Toni. And I suppose these four explanations could be combined, with a little ingenuity.

Are Chloe, Toni, Ardelia, and Anthony different personalities? I don’t know. But as past posts indicate, multiple personality is common in her novels.