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
Census
Montreal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 871 people with the first name Montreal, which placed it at #13,749 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#13,749
National first-name rank
People counted
871
871 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
91.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Montreal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Montreal is Black at 91.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.9%) and Hispanic (2.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Montreal described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Montreal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American91.0% · 793
- Two or more races3.9% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 21
- White2.0% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 1
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.
How common was Montreal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 871 people with the name Montreal, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,749 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Montreal in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Montreal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Montreal leans strongly male. 807 people counted with this name were male (92.1%), compared with 69 female bearers (7.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Montreal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Montreal is Black at 91.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.9%) and Hispanic (2.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Montreal most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Montreal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.0% (793 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Montreal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Montreal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Montreal in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Montreal can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How common is the name Montreal?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.