Branwell

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A masculine given name of Welsh origin, borne most famously by the brother of the novelists Charlotte and Emily Brontë
2. A male first name of Welsh origin, best known as that of the painter and poet who was the only son in the Brontë family
3. Masculine forename with Welsh roots, most famously carried by the 19th-century English artist and sibling of the Brontë sisters

Etymology: The name is best known from Patrick Branwell Brontë, the only son of Patrick Brontë and brother of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. He received it from his mother, Maria Branwell, whose family name it was. The surname was common in Cornwall, where she grew up in Penzance, and the family passed it on to her son as a given name. Where the surname itself came from is less certain. Some scholars link it to the Celtic element "bran," meaning "raven," which also appears in Welsh and Cornish names, but the connection is not firmly established. What is clear is that the name moved from a Cornish family line into the Brontë household, and from there into the literary record through a brother whose own life is now better known than his poems.