From a surname, an Anglicized form of Irish Ó Proinntigh meaning "descendant of Proinnteach". The given name Proinnteach meant "bestower" in Gaelic. The Brontë sisters - Charlotte, Emily, and Anne - were 19th-century English novelists. Their father changed the spelling of the family surname from Brunty to Brontë, possibly to make it coincide with Greek βροντη meaning "thunder".