 Henri-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant was born on 5 August 1850 at the late-16th century Château de Miromesnil, near Dieppe in the Seine-Inférieure (now Seine-Maritime) department in France.He was the first son of Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant, both from prosperous bourgeois families.His mother urged his father when they married in 1846 to obtain the right to use the particule or form "de Maupassant" instead of "Maupassant" as his family name, in order to indicate noble birth.