Montreal
A Canadian place name derived from the French 'mont réal', meaning "royal mountain".
Name Census estimates that about 1,074 living Americans carry the first name Montreal. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Montreal today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Montreal births was 1990 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Montreal. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 319,138 Americans
Peak year
1990
50 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,099
Tracked since 1969
Popularity
Montreal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Montreal from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 335 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Montreal by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Montreal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Montreals live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Montreal, while Virginia, Illinois, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Montreal
The name Montreal is derived from the French phrase "mont royal," which means "royal mountain." It is believed to have originated in the 16th century, when Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, first used the term to refer to the hill located on the island of Montreal in the St. Lawrence River. The name was later adopted for the city that grew up around the mountain.
The earliest recorded use of the name Montreal can be traced back to Cartier's travel journals from his voyages to the area in the 1530s. He referred to the hill as "Mont Royal" in his writings, and the name eventually became associated with the settlement that developed nearby.
While the name Montreal itself does not have any direct historical references or appearances in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the concept of a "royal mountain" or a prominent geographical feature being named after a monarch or ruler was not uncommon in various cultures throughout history.
In terms of notable individuals named Montreal, the name has been relatively uncommon as a given name. However, there are a few examples worth mentioning:
1. Montreal de Berlier (born around 1450), a French scholar and theologian who served as the rector of the University of Paris in the late 15th century.
2. Montreal du Verger (1432-1499), a French nobleman and military leader who fought in the Hundred Years' War.
3. Montreal de la Cluse (1633-1701), a French Benedictine monk and historian who wrote about the history of the Savoy region.
4. Montreal de Courten (1568-1636), a French-Swiss nobleman and military officer who served in the Thirty Years' War.
5. Montreal de Laval (1659-1738), the first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec and the founder of the Seminary of Quebec, which later became Laval University.
While the name Montreal has its roots in French and is closely associated with the city in Canada, it has not been widely used as a given name throughout history. Nevertheless, its connection to the "royal mountain" and the early exploration of the region adds a unique and interesting historical context to its origins and meaning.
People
Montreal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Montreal as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Montreal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Montreal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,074 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Montreal going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 319,138 US residents.
Is Montreal a common name?
We classify Montreal as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,108 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Montreal most popular?
The single biggest year for Montreal was 1990, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Montreal is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Montreal a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Montreal in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.