Thanks for joining this Board, Classic! Nice to see a new 'face'! I think Charlotte used names she was familiar with from Yorkshire as well. "Eyre" is an old ancestral name Charlotte discovered when she visited North Lees shortly before writing the book. Even her non de plume, "Currer Bell" might have been based on a local philanthropist. Since Charlotte was writing about actual people must of the time, she was clever in using names as disguises. I think she combined the metaphorical w. the practical.

The use of names in "Wuthering Heights" is also intriguing. There is a repetition of sounds in Heathcliff, Hareton, Hindley. Then there's Edgar Linton, Linton Heathcliff. The names Lockwood reads on the windowsill trace the path of the novel: Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Linton, Catherine Heathcliff, full circle back to Catherine Earnshaw. It's interesting that in her poetry, Emily seems to have had a plethora of names for one character: AGA. Augusta Geraldine Almeda, Rosina, Geraldine Alcona and so on - Although I've never been entirely convinced that they're all the same character. At least Rosina and August seem to be distinct identities.

I wonder where Charlotte got "Rochester" from? I don't think this was an Angrian character, though he's modeled on her Duke of Zamorna/Arthur Wellesley.

There are more names in Villette that i can think of. I think that Charlotte bettered as a writer as she wrote more books, but Jane Eyre still is her best. Well Polly Home, the little girl at the beginning of the book's name is simple. But her name changes when she gets older to something more elegant- Paulina de Bassompierre (at least something like that!) That matches her up to Ginevra Fanshawe, another well-picked name. And an easier one of course is Jane, which is very 'plain.' (and it rhymes!) T at's interesting Amy, about Rochester. I wonder where she did find that.

Yeah, I don't think there's a precedent for 'Rochester' in the juvenalia. I know where she got 'Eyre' from, but that's about it!!