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There are many possible ways to address this question. The following answer includes only a few of the ways the names in Jane Eyre can be interpreted.The name "Jane Eyre" elicits many associations. The contrast between Jane's first name—with its traditional association with "plainness"—and the names of the novel's well-born women (Blanche, Eliza, Georgiana, Diana, Rosamond) highlights Jane's lack of status, but it also emphasizes her lack of pretence. Jane's last name has many possible interpretations, none of which mutually excludes the other. "Eyre" is an archaic spelling for "air," and throughout the book, Jane is linked to the spiritual or ethereal as she drifts, windlike, from one location to the next. In French, "aire" refers to a bird's nesting place, among other things. Jane is compared to a bird repeatedly throughout the novel, and she often uses her imagination as a "nesting-place" of sorts, a private realm where she can feel secure. In medieval times, "eyre" also signified circuit-traveling judges. Perhaps Jane's name is meant to bring attention to her role as a careful evaluator of all that she sees, and to the importance that she attaches to justice. "Eyre" also sounds like "heir," and its other homophone—"err"—could certainly be interpreted to be meaningful, especially to feminist and religious critics who take issue with Jane's actions!Place names also seem to be symbolic. Jane's story begins at "Gateshead." From there, she moves to the bosky darkness and spiritual abyss of "Lowood." At Thornfield, she must fight her way through the stings of many emotional and psychological thorns (or, as many critics argue, wear "a crown of thorns" like Jesus Christ). Jane first tastes true freedom of movement in the open spaces surrounding Moor House, while Ferndean is the home where her love can grow fertile. Thus in Chapter 37 Rochester says to Jane, "I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree in Thornfield orchard … And what right would that ruin have to bid a budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness?" Jane replies, "You are no ruin, sir—no lightning-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop."

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