# Brontë (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/bronte/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “thunder” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɹɑn.ti/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 932 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 18 / 914 (98% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 1,304, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

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).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 14 | 8,343 |
| 2011 | 13 | 8,714 |
| 2012 | 13 | 8,714 |
| 2013 | 6 | 14,955 |
| 2014 | 6 | 14,909 |
| 2015 | 9 | 11,056 |
| 2016 | 11 | 9,527 |
| 2017 | 13 | 8,365 |
| 2018 | 14 | 7,836 |
| 2019 | 7 | 12,681 |
| 2020 | 9 | 10,415 |
| 2021 | 12 | 8,569 |
| 2022 | 7 | 12,485 |
| 2023 | 9 | 10,471 |
| 2024 | 14 | 7,660 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 5 | 8,874 |
| 1994 | 8 | 6,441 |
| 2000 | 5 | 10,579 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 43 | 841 |
| 2012 | 32 | 1,075 |
| 2013 | 36 | 999 |
| 2014 | 35 | 1,016 |
| 2015 | 38 | 942 |
| 2016 | 34 | 1,031 |
| 2017 | 47 | 814 |
| 2018 | 25 | 1,314 |
| 2019 | 30 | 1,119 |
| 2020 | 31 | 1,065 |
| 2021 | 32 | 1,069 |
| 2022 | 27 | 1,215 |
| 2023 | 50 | 727 |
| 2024 | 74 | 526 |
| 2025 | 76 | 526 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3 | 4,608 |
| 2025 | 4 | 4,275 |

## People named Brontë

- Bronte Campbell, Australian swimmer, Olympic athlete, world champion, former world record-holder
- Bronte Barratt, Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medallist, world champion, former world record-holder
- Bronte Halligan, Australian water polo player

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.