What's in a name?

The Statesman runs a section on Q&A and this is what we find there:

Q: My wife claims that her college professor asserted that the Brontë family of writers should be pronounced Bron-tee, although most people pronounce it Bron-tay. I believe that he was incorrect. We have searched long and hard on the Internet and cannot come up with anything. Please help us. A steak dinner is riding on this.
— Randy R.
A: How do you like your steak? "Bron-tay is correct," says Theresa Connors, American representative of the Brontë Society.
Patrick Brontë, father of the literary sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) was born Patrick Brunty. When he moved to England from Ireland, he changed his name to Brontë in honor of Horatio Nelson, a Royal Navy hero. Brontë is an estate in southern Italy granted by the King of Naples to Nelson, who became the Duke of Brontë

This puts us in a bit of a quandary since not so long ago we had this post where it was said that the right pronunciation would be "BRAHN-tee" (though the accompanying story on its origins didn't fit). Our own dictionary says that both are correct, though we have to admit that we had always heard it pronounced "BRAHN-tee" since it does come from Prunty/Brunty, where the last sound would definitely be "tee".

What say you?

Categories: In_the_News