Emily Brontë's Real Name: Emily Jane Brontë

Quick answer: Emily Brontë's full name was Emily Jane Brontë. She was born on July 30, 1818, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. Emily Brontë was her real name; Jane was her middle name. She published her novel Wuthering Heights (1847) and poems under the pen name Ellis Bell. She died of tuberculosis on December 19, 1848 (Biography.com; Britannica).

Real name and early life

Biography.com gives her full name as Emily Jane Brontë, born on July 30, 1818, in Thornton, Yorkshire. The Library of Congress files her as "Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848," with variants including "Brontë, Emily Jane, 1818-1848" and "Bell, Ellis, 1818-1848."

She was the fifth child of the Reverend Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell Brontë. The family moved to Haworth in April 1821. Biography.com says that at age six she was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge with her sisters; after illness at the school, her father brought Emily and Charlotte home. Their aunt Elizabeth Branwell came to live with the family and help raise the children. As a young woman Emily tried to find paid work. She became a teacher at Law Hill School in September 1837, at age 19, and left the following March. In 1842 she and Charlotte traveled to Brussels to study; they returned to Haworth after their aunt's death.

Career highlights

With her sisters Charlotte and Anne she published Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Those surnames were pen names: Ellis Bell was Emily's. In 1847 she published the novel Wuthering Heights under that name. Biography.com calls the Gothic romance a work that later garnered wide critical and commercial acclaim and became the subject of multiple movie and television adaptations. It was only after her death, the same source notes, that the book developed its reputation as a literary masterwork. In 1850 Charlotte released a new edition of Wuthering Heights, along with Anne's Agnes Grey, selected poems, and a biographical notice intended to clear up confusion caused by the Bell pseudonyms.

Illness and death

Biography.com and Britannica say that soon after the novel appeared her health failed rapidly. Her breathing became difficult, and she died of tuberculosis on December 19, 1848, in Haworth.

Name notes for searchers

Emily Jane Brontë was her real name. Ellis Bell was a pen name, not a legal change. The surname is often spelled Bronte without the diaeresis. Catalogs also file her under E. J. Brontë. She spent most of her life in Haworth, which remains closely associated with the Brontë family and with Wuthering Heights. Her sisters Charlotte, the author of Jane Eyre, and Anne also published novels.