How would you pronounce Brontë?

[Bronteeorbrontay]

Just that really. If you met a Brontë or Bronte, how would you automatically pronounce it?
Is it awful?
I quite like it. I always assumed it was Brontay but online I keep finding people are pronouncing it Brontee. I actually quite like both but I'd want to pick the one that is most commonly used.
We are not set on this name, but I've already got three kids and really struggling to find a name I don't associate with another child we know or a member of our huge family!

The two little dots mean you pronounce the e separately. It's called a dieresis. As in Moët, Citroën, Noël. The family name was originally Prunty, but the Bronrë sisters' father changed it to the even stranger Brontë when he moved to England.

I've only ever heard it pronounced as Bron-tay.

What do you mean ‘even stranger’? There’s nothing at all odd about Prunty or Brunty. They were just, along with Branty, two of the usual ways O’Proinnteach was anglicised, and he changed it at Cambridge to mitigate the violent anti-Irish prejudice of his day.

No, that’s not right, because here the ë is next to a t. It needs to be next to a vowel for it to be diaeresis.

Patrick Brontë, father of the famous sisters, was born in Drumballyroney, near Banbridge in Northern Ireland.

People from that area, pronounce and spell the surname "Brunty"

But that’s supposedly short for chloë.
Yes it would be Clo to rhyme with flow without the dots.

The -oe would be like in Joe. -oê is o-y (like Joey).

It’s pronounced Brontee (as in the writers) and also “Brontee country” in West Yorkshire.

No, it wouldn’t - just as words like anemone, catastrophe, epitome, acne, apostrophe, sesame, etc, etc, all pronounce the final E as a separate syllable.

@LastHotel , they would unless you knew how to say them.
No, it wouldn’t - just as words like anemone, catastrophe, epitome, acne, apostrophe, sesame, etc, etc, all pronounce the final E as a separate syllable.

There are threads on here where posters say they pronounce words like hyperbole, Persephone and Hermione as hyperbowl, Percy-phone and Hermy-own.

Same here- and I have a Yorkshire accent so chances are thats correct

I’ve never heard it as Bront eee - it’s a much shorter ‘e’ sound.

Yorkshire born and bred

@WiseMoose , Brontee looks like it should be said like bootee or divocee.
I think they mean Bronty.

After a consonant, though. Usually ‘oe’ is pronounced as ‘a single syllable, usually pronounced ‘oh’ (toe, hoe, foe) but sometimes ‘ooh’ (shoe).

There are bound to be regional variations depending on accent, and I think we've established there are two main pronunciations.
If anyone has any opinions on the name, or any other info on it (people they know with the name) and what nicknames etc are used it would be really helpful.

Brontosaurus is the obvious one.

It is how it should sound if you like 19th Century novels!

I was at the Brontë parsonage museum yesterday for the umpteenth time. Can confirm the proper West Yorkshire moors pronunciation is Bron-teh

It’s a great name. We taught a lovely girl called Bronte in our school in Leeds and I have always thought I would name a future pet Bronte.

Yes, that is fair enough. I was distracted away from the double vowel

Bronte .. BRON - tee, though I don't prolong the ee sound.
Similar to Marty and Monty.

Bron tay, im home Counties if that makes a difference.

I went to school with a Bron-tee
Spelled the Bronte way

Brontë is Bron-TEH

It’s neither Tay nor Tee.