J.R.R. Tolkien’s wife, Edith, had the surname Bratt before their marriage.
Edith Mary Bratt met Tolkien in Birmingham when she was a teenager. They developed a close relationship, but Tolkien’s guardian, Father Francis Morgan, initially forbade him from contacting her while he was underage and preparing for university. Tolkien resumed the relationship after turning 21.
Tolkien and Edith married on 22 March 1916 at St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church in Warwick. Edith became an important personal influence on Tolkien, and he associated her with the fictional character Lúthien, an immortal elf whose love story with the mortal Beren is central to Tolkien’s mythology.
Readers sometimes confuse Edith’s surname with Tolkien family names or with the name of a Tolkien character. “Bratt” is her family surname before marriage; after the wedding she was Edith Tolkien. Their marriage lasted until Edith’s death in 1971.