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Mary Ann Evans

Her name is Mary Ann Evans, but my English prof told me Eliot often changed the spelling of her name. Sometimes she was Marion Evans, for example. Hope this helps!

Her real name was Mary Ann Evans.

George Eliot's real name is Edith Wharton

Mary Anne Evans

Ha, Sharon's an idiot. Keep your ignorance to yourself, tool.

Marian Evans, or Mary Ann Evans. She modified her name throughout her life.

What is George Eliot's real name?

[Albion]

Her name was Mary Anne Evans somtimes contracted to Marianne Evans. She chose a man's name as a pseudonym because it was thought at that time that a woman could not write convincingly (Jane Austen was the obvious exception and Mrs Gaskell came later). The interesting question is why George Eliot. George was a highly respectable name reflected in a century of kings of that name. But why Eliot? My theory is as follows:

She was multilingual in French and German as well as English. Her first novels "Scenes of Clerical Life" were about clergymen i.e. men of the cloth. "Toile" is a french word for a type of cloth; and Eliot is toile in reverse. This would account for the single "L"; normal spelling would be "Elliot" or "Elliott".