Montserrat
Feminine · Latin roots · “serrated mountain”
Montserrat is the name of a mountain — a ridge of stone pillars northwest of Barcelona whose Benedictine abbey has drawn pilgrims since the Middle Ages. Girls in Catalonia and later across Mexico and Latin America were named for it, and the name still travels with that rhythm of four syllables settling onto the last one: mon-se-RRAT.
How old is the name Montserrat?
Montserrat first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Montserrat is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,600 people named Montserrat are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Montserrat most popular?
Montserrat peaked in 2014, reaching #572 nationally. Today it ranks #1373, 801 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mons serratus (Latin) to Montserrat
The story of Montserrat
The name begins as a place: Montserrat, the massif near Barcelona, where a Benedictine monastery has stood since the eleventh century and houses the dark wooden statue of the Virgin known in Catalan as la Moreneta. Girls were named Montserrat in devotion to that Virgin, patron of Catalonia, and the name spread with Catalan and Spanish Catholicism far beyond the mountain itself. Columbus attached the name to a Caribbean island in 1493, having seen the abbey's ridge; centuries later the given name became a steady favorite in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, which is where most of its American story comes from. In the United States it is concentrated in Texas, California and Florida.
Meaning
serrated mountain, from Latin mons serratus
The mountain earned the description honestly: its silhouette is a row of rounded rock towers, like the teeth of a saw.
How the name formed
- mons serratusLatin
- MontserratCatalan
- MontserratSpanish
Related forms: Montserrat · Montserrat · Monserrat · Monserrate · Montserrat
Pronouncing Montserrat
mon-se-RAT
In Spanish and Catalan the final syllable takes the stress and the r is rolled; English speakers often say MONT-suh-rat instead. Both are heard in the US, and the t in the middle is usually swallowed.
Nicknames for Montserrat
High
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 2014534 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #572reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +6.7%160 in 2025, from 150
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.
Montserrat in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Montserrat in Catalan — same name
- Montserrat in Spanish — same name
- Monserrat in Spanish (Latin America) — spelling variant
- Monserrate in Portuguese — related form
- Montserrat in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Montserrats among us
people named Montserrat are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,045 born in 2025 was named Montserrat
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 Roxanna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Montserrat's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roxanna climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roxanna's path sketches the road Montserrat is walking now.
Montserrat 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
Where Montserrat is headed
Montserrat should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Montserrat beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Montserrat in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Carries a fixed, documented meaning — the saw-toothed mountain outside Barcelona — with no competing readings to explain.
- Has a ready-made short form, Montse, in use for centuries and understood immediately by Spanish and Catalan speakers.
- Spelled the same way in Catalan, Spanish, French and English, so it crosses borders without adaptation.
- Distinctive in American classrooms while being entirely familiar in Spanish-speaking families and communities.
- The double letters are the weak point: Monserrat, without the t, is so common in Latin America that she will be spelled both ways for life. Worth deciding early which spelling is hers.
- Stress and the rolled r fall away in English mouths, so she may answer to two different pronunciations depending on who is speaking — at school one way, at home another.
- Four syllables is a lot for a first name, and a short form will likely do most of the daily work. Montse and Monse are the established ones.
- The name also belongs to a Caribbean island known for its volcano, which is where some English speakers will place it first.
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What they receive
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Montserrat
Feminine · Latin roots · #1373 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Montserrats are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,600 people named Montserrat are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Montserrat in 2025?
- Montserrat ranks #1373 among US girl names in 2025, with 160 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Montserrat?
- About 1 in every 10,045 US girls born in 2025 was named Montserrat — 160 in all.
- Will my child share the name Montserrat with classmates?
- Montserrat will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Montserrat
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Keylani#1373 · Asha#1373 · Sanai#1373 · Tate#1373 · Cherish#1373 · Emani#1373 · Petra#1367 · Martina#1367
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Montserrat? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Montserrat and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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