The Story of How Charlotte Brontë Got Her Famous Name
We’d Be Quoting Charlotte Brunty If Not For Her Father
Patrick Brunty was supposed to be a farmer. As the oldest child to Hugh and Elinor Brunty, expectation called for Patrick to take over the family farm in County Down, Ireland. Instead, Patrick became a schoolteacher. And then he got into Cambridge University in England.
In Oct. 1802, a 25-year-old Patrick arrived at Cambridge. He registered at the university’s St. John’s College using, for reasons we don’t know, a new last name. Patrick Brunty became Patrick Brontë.
The two dots above the “e” in Brontë are what’s called a diaeresis. The symbol marks that a vowel’s a separate syllable. We don’t use diaeresis in English much anymore. But because Patrick did, we associate the surname with the author of one of the greatest English novels ever written.
Patrick became a minister and married Maria Branwell. They had six children before Maria died of cancer at 38. It was the family’s first experience with death, a tragedy they’d all become familiar over the years.
The Tragic, Talented Brontës
The two oldest Brontë children died not too long after Maria. Three daughters and a son remained: Emily, Anne, Branwell, and Charlotte…
