Brontë

Used by Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) as a rendering of Brunty, Prunty, an Anglicization of the Irish Ó Proinntigh (“descendant of a person named Proinnteach (“Generous”)”), with the diaeresis over the terminal ⟨e⟩ to indicate that the name has two syllables.

He first registered in 1802 at St John’s College, Cambridge, as Branty or Brunty, later Brontë, and formally changed the spelling in adult life. Multiple theories exist to account for the change, including that he may have wished to hide his humble origins. As he would have been familiar with classical Greek as a man of letters, he may have chosen the name after Ancient Greek βροντή (brontḗ, “thunder”). One view, which biographer Clement Shorter proposed in 1896, is that he adapted his name to associate himself with Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, who was also Duke of Bronte (itself also of same Greek origin). One might also find evidence for this theory in his desire to associate himself with the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley) in his form of dress.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɒnti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɑnti/
• Rhymes: -ɒnti
• Hyphenation: Bron‧të

Brontë (plural Brontës)

1. An extinct surname from Irish, borne by a 19th-century literary family.
   • 2024 September 26, Mark Brown, “Brontë sisters finally get their dots as names corrected at Westminster Abbey”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 October 2024:

     An 85-year injustice has been rectified at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey with the corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. Reader, it is finally Brontë, not Bronte. An amended memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë was unveiled on Thursday with added diaereses (two dots) that ensure people pronounce it with two syllables. As if it rhymed with Monty, not font. The memorial was installed in 1939 and, for whatever reason, came without the diaereses that the Brontës used.

2. A male given name transferred from the surname.

• Berton, Breton, betorn