Montgomery
- Origin: Anglo-Norman, French
- Meaning: “Gumarich’s mountain.”
- Gender: Male
- Usage: English
- First Est. 17th-century
- Variations: Montgomerie, Montgommery
- Diminutives: Mont, Monte, Montie, Mont(e)y
From the transferred use of an Anglo-Norman surname, which itself derives from the French place-name Montgommery, the name of two places in Normandy, France. The surname was brought to England following the Norman Conquest and ultimately means “Gumarich’s mountain,” from Old French mont (“hill; mountain”) and the Germanic personal name Gumarich, composed of elements meaning “man” and “powerful; ruler.”
The surname was borne by the powerful Anglo-Norman Montgomery family. Roger de Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury (d. 1094), was one of the great magnates of Norman England, and the family subsequently gave its name to Montgomery in Wales and to the former county of Montgomeryshire. A branch of the family settled in Scotland in the 12th century, where the name became established as that of Clan Montgomery.
As a male given name, Montgomery has been in use in both Britain and North America since at least the 16th century, likely originating through the traditional practice of bestowing a family surname as a personal name. It appeared sporadically in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Male Names between 1880 and 1899, peaking at #720 in 1883. It briefly reappeared between 1960 and 1968, reaching a high of #891 during this period. After an absence of more than half a century, Montgomery reentered the U.S. Top 1000 in 2025 at #960.
In England & Wales, Montgomery has appeared in the Top 1000 since 1997. It reached its highest position of #362 in 2012 and, as of 2025, ranked #578.
One of the most famous bearers was American actor Montgomery Clift (1920–1966), a major Hollywood star of the 1940s and 1950s known for films such as A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity and Judgment at Nuremberg. His prominence helped familiarize Montgomery as a masculine given name in the United States, though it is uncertain whether he had any direct influence on the name’s brief return to the U.S. rankings during the 1960s.
The name also has a strong military association through British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery (1887–1976), commonly known as “Monty,” one of Britain’s best-known commanders of the Second World War. Although Montgomery was his surname rather than his given name, his fame helped make both Montgomery and its familiar short form Monty widely recognizable in Britain.
Sister Names: Al(l)ison, Arabella, Augusta, Beatrix Berenice, Bethia, Catherine, Cecily, Cressida, Daphne, Diana, Dorothea, Edith, Eleanor, Frances, Ethel, Frances, Flora, Frederica, Georgiana, Grace, Gwendolen/lyn, Harriet, Helen(a), Henrietta, Imogen, Iona, Isabel, Jane, Jemima(h), Josephine, Kate, Katherine, Kerensa, Lavinia, Lilias, Louisa, Margaret, Margaux/Margot, Millicent, Nell, Nessie, Nicola, Octavia, Opal, Ottilie, Perdita, Philippa, Phoebe, Romilly, Rosamond, Rosalind, Selah, Sybil, Susannah, Theodora, Thisbe, Thomasina, Una, Ursula, Verena, Victoria, Vivian, Wilhelmina, Winifred, Yvonne, Zelda, Zelie
Brother Names: Alistair, Angus, Archibald, Benedict, Bruce, Byron, Campbell, Conrad, Crispin, Dashiell, Douglas, Duncan, Edmund, Errol, Ewan, Fergus, Flynn, Frederick, Graham, Grant, Griffin, Hamish, Harvey, Hugh, Ian, Irving, Keir, Kensington, Kent, Lachlan, Lincoln, Lionel, Malcolm, Mungo, Murray, Neville, Nigel, Niles, Orville, Oswald, Orlando, Percival, Piers, Preston, Quincy, Quinlan, Quentin, Rafferty, Remington, Rupert, Scott, Sinclair, Spencer, Talbot, Thaddeus, Tristan, Upton, Ulric, Urquhart, Vance, Victor, Vaughan, Wallace, Winston, Woodrow, Yardley, Yale, York
Sources
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