Montreal
Masculine · “royal mountain”
Montreal is a mountain before it is a city. Jacques Cartier climbed the hill in the middle of the island, liked the view, and called it mont réal — royal mountain — in the French of his day. A settlement grew around it a century later under a different name entirely, and the mountain's name won in the end, as place names often do.
How old is the name Montreal?
Montreal first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Montreal alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 1,100 people named Montreal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Montreal most popular?
Montreal peaked in 1990, reaching #1635 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 10,373 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mont réal to Montreal
The story of Montreal
Cartier reached the island in 1535 and found a fortified Iroquoian town called Hochelaga; the mountain he named that day is the one the city now sits around. Montreal became the largest French-speaking city in the Americas, which is the whole of its meaning to most people who hear the word. Its life as a given name in the United States is a separate and much shorter story, belonging to the American practice of naming children after places that carry an idea — a habit that has produced Dallas, Austin, Brooklyn, Denver and Paris, and that treats the map as a source of names rather than of directions.
Meaning
royal mountain
From French mont, a mountain or hill, and a sixteenth-century spelling of royal. The city was founded as Ville-Marie and only later took the mountain's name; the hill itself is still called Mount Royal, so the city and the hill carry the same words in two languages.
How the name formed
- mont réal
- Mont-Royal
- Montreal
Related forms: Montréal
Pronouncing Montreal
MON-tree-all
Three syllables in American English, stress on the first. French says it in three too but quite differently, with a nasal first syllable and the weight at the back. In the United States the English version is universal.
Nicknames for Montreal
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1969
- Most boys named
- 199050 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1635reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- −50.0%5 in 2025, from 10
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Montreal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Montréal in French — same name
Montreals among us
people named Montreal are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Montreal
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Herby test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Montreal's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Herby climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Herby's path sketches the road Montreal is walking now.
Montreal sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Montreal beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Montreal in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everybody can spell it and say it, because everybody has seen the city's name in print.
- It offers short forms with completely different characters, from Monte to Rio.
- The meaning is a plain, pleasant image rather than an abstraction, and it takes one sentence to tell.
- It is a large, well-known city, and the name will always be heard as the place first.
- Three syllables and eight letters is a substantial name for a small child.
- The French accent that belongs on it will not survive American records, and the French pronunciation will not survive American mouths.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Montreal to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Montreal
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Montreals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Montreal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Montreal in 2025?
- Montreal ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Montreal?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Montreal — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Montreal with classmates?
- Montreal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Montreal
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elpidio#12008 · Cesare#12008 · Baldomero#12008 · Karel#12008 · Galvin#12008 · Daymond#12008 · Leron#12008 · Mackey#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Montreal? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Montreal and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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