History Main / MoustacheDePlume

Note: This trope is explicitly about situations where the author is credited under a name that will not reveal their gender. One way to do this is to [[{{OnlyKnownByInitials}} use initials]], but not everyone using his/her initials is trying to conceal his/her gender. Therefore, Creator/JRRTolkien, Creator/CSLewis, Creator/HPLovecraft or Creator/LMMontgomery (who never hid the fact that she was a woman) do not fit this trope.

Subtrope of PenName. See also SameFaceDifferentName, GirlShowGhetto.

Related to GenderBlenderName, when it's the person's given name that's ambiguous with their gender.

Compare and contrast GenderBlenderName, when it's the person's given name that's ambiguous with their gender.

* {{Discussed}} in ''Film/TheJaneAustenBookClub.'' Grigg, who starts reading Creator/JaneAusten's books to get closer to his LoveInterest, tries to get her into his favorite sci-fi novels. He notes that originally he and his dad used them as a "guy thing" to bond over due to living in [[OutnumberedSibling a mostly-female household]]; as he got older, however, he learned that some of his favorite authors were actually women, name-checking a few of the RealLife examples below. He quips that, fortunately, by that point he was old enough to ''like'' girls.

* K.C. Hunter, Kira's counterpart in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' {{Elseworld}} of 1950s science fiction writers, who's pretty clearly based on C. L. Moore (with Bashir's counterpart as Henry Kuttner). This is also likely a tribute to the aforementioned Dorothy Catherine "D.C." Fontana, who was a 1960s Science Fiction writer for ''Star Trek'', who originally started as Gene Roddenberry's secretary. She went by D.C. of course to avoid the stigma of being a female writer and wrote some of the most well-known episodes of the show, as well as the most acclaimed episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''. When a group photograph of the writers is suggested, Hunter is told to take the day off rather than give the game away (so is the only black writer on staff).

* A non-writing example is the setup for ''Series/RemingtonSteele'': private investigator Laura Holt has very little success finding business due to people not trusting a female PI so she renames her practice to "Remington Steele Agency" after a non-existent male superior. The show kicks off when a mysterious conman [[TheRealRemingtonSteele claiming to be Steele]] hijacks the agency.

* Creator/KAApplegate: Publishers were afraid that boys would turned off of reading Literature/{{Animorphs}}, a series about teenagers being forced to fight a secret guerrilla war if her gender was obvious. She has written some latter non-''Animorphs'' books as Katherine Applegate.

* In one of his monologues on the BBC radio show ''My Word!'', Frank Muir describes filling in for the ''Dear Deirdre'' advice column in the local paper, because "Deirdre" got his beard caught in the glass-washing machine in the pub after rugby practice. Again. In another, Muir says he's writing a romance novel under the name Deborah Horseland (which should keep him ahead of Barbara Cartland).

* Not an author, but an example nonetheless: In the original Japanese release of ''Manga/GunsmithCats'', according to WordOfGod, female bounty hunter Rally Vincent's name [[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY is actually pronounced as]] ''[[JapaneseRanguage Larry]]''. It's hinted, at least in one page of the manga, that she took this name so that those seeking to hire a bounty hunter would think she was a man, and thus take her seriously.

* Tara Samms is an odd example; it's a pseudonym used by Stephen Cole for some of his ''Franchise/{{Doctor Who|ExpandedUniverse}}'' work, but ''Doctor Who'' spin-off fiction is a male-to-gender-neutral market, so the gender of the pseudonym isn't particularly relevant. It does, however, indicate the work is going to be more "psychological" than works under Cole's own name.

* The editors of [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel UK]]'s ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' reprint title in the seventies included Peter K. Skigley (actually Petra Skigley) and Matt Softly (actually Maureen Softly). These were, after all, ''boys''' comics.

* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' has the SpearCounterpart to this, where Mick Rory writes smutty romance novels under the pen name Rebecca Silver. At some point, he even has his friend Charlie pretend to be Rebecca Silver at a romance convention while pretending to be her bodyguard.

* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': Mick Rory writes pulpy erotic novels under the pen name of Rebecca Silver.

* [[Creator/DCFontana D. C. (Dorothy Catherine) Fontana]], writer of some of ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'''s best-loved episodes.

!!Inversions (Womb De Plume):

* ''Series/FantasyIsland2021'': Rachel Coldwater, a 19th century writer, had to publish under an assumed name and use her brother as the official author, as her books could not be published by a woman.

* In the ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' episode "[[Recap/BlackadderS3E2InkAndIncapability Ink and Incapability]]", the protagonist writes ''Edmund: A Butler's Tale'' under the name Gertrude Perkins, because everyone wants books by women nowadays. He claims that Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, and Dorothy Wordsworth are all men, Austen being an "a huge Yorkshireman with a beard like a rhododendron bush". "James Boswell is the only real woman writing at the moment, and that's just because she wants to get inside [Samuel] Johnson's britches."

* A non-writing example is the setup for ''Series/RemingtonSteele'': private investigator Laura Holt has very little success finding business due to people not trusting a female PI so she names her detective agency after a non-existent male superior called "Remington Steele". The show kicks off when a mysterious conman [[TheRealRemingtonSteele claiming to be Steele]] hijacks the agency.

[-[[caption-width-right:350:Author Robert Galbrath, real name Joanne Rowling.]]-]

* Britt Allcroft, producer of the original ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' TV stories (series 1-5); has a gender-ambiguous name. She is often mistaken for male by people writing articles about the series.

[-[[caption-width-right:350:Author Robert Galbrath, real name Joanne Kathleen Rowling.]]-]

* K.C. Hunter, Kira's counterpart in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' {{Elseworld}} of 1950s science fiction writers, who's pretty clearly based on C. L. Moore (with Bashir's counterpart as Henry Kuttner). This is also likely a tribute to the aforementioned Dorothy Catherine "D.C." Fontana, who was a 1960s Science Fiction writer for ''Star Trek'', who originally started as Gene Roddenberry's secretary. She went by D.C. of course to avoid the stigma of being a female writer and wrote some of the most well-known episodes of the show, as well as the most acclaimed episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''.

[[caption-width-right:350:Author Robert Galbrath, real name Joanne Kathleen Rowling.]]