Richard Blow, one-time executive editor on John Kennedy Jr.'s George magazine, is blowing off his surname.

Blow will be known by the name Richard Bradley by the time his new book, "Harvard Rules," hits next spring, Media Ink has learned.

The new surname is his mother's maiden name.

"I'm writing books full time now and it's important to me that people focus on the work inside the covers and not get distracted by a name," Blow-soon-to-be-Bradley told Media Ink.

He said it will be a legal name change, not a simple pseudonym.

The book, which looks at the powerful Ivy League institution and the reign of current Harvard President Lawrence Summers, is already cataloged under the new author surname.

He's believed to have snagged an advance of about $300,000 for the book.

The name change is a shocker, because Blow's first book, "American Son" - about Kennedy and the inner workings of George - was a surprise No.1 bestseller when it was published in 2002.

But the book, eventually published by Henry Holt, was dogged by controversy - almost from the start.

Little Brown & Co, which had originally agreed to pay an estimated $750,000 advance, balked when news of a confidentiality agreement between Blow and the late John Kennedy Jr.

Blow was also raked over the coals, because insiders said he had retaliated against George staffers who spoke to the press in the frantic days after John was killed in a plane crash in July 1999.

At the time, Blow insisted he enforced the "no-press" edict because that was the wish of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who had inherited John's stake in the magazine upon his death.

Still, the outcry was enough to get Little Brown to pull out of the deal.

After a p.r. drubbing, Blow eventually sold a completed manuscript to John Sterling and Henry Holt for an estimated $250,000.

Blow insisted that is not the reason for the change.

"It's not about the controversy for 'American Son,' " he said.

"I'm proud of that book. . . And it's not about getting teased in high school - everyone gets teased for something in high school." But he has wondered about future generations. "I just turned 40 and I'm thinking about starting a family and I figured now was the right time for a change," he said.

Despite the name change, David Hirshey, editor for Blow at Harper Collins (owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post) said he didn't think the switch would hurt the new book.

"It's not like he's changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol," said Hirshey.

"Look at the career of John Cougar Mellencamp. He's had 32 different name changes and his fans somehow manage to find his work. The book will speak for itself no matter whose name it's published under," Hirshey said.