Mountain
A topographic surname for someone who lived near a mountain or high hill, with some English families also descended from the French de Montaigne line.
The #9,877 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 94,302 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually topographic, referring to someone who lived by a mountain or prominent hill. The word ultimately goes back to Latin montana, meaning a hilly or mountainous district, through Old French forms such as montaigne or montagne. In some cases, the name was also used by families originally called de Montaigne, later anglicized to Mountain.
History
English records suggest the name was not especially common, which fits a country with relatively few mountains compared with surnames like Hill. One noted line came from French Huguenot refugees: a family called de Montaigne reportedly settled in Norfolk after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the name was later anglicized to Mountain. The surname therefore has both native topographic and immigrant French usage in its history.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers explicitly joked that England had more Hills and Hills than Mountains, because the landscape offered fewer obvious 'mountain' bynames.
From the historical record
“MOUNTAN ■) (A,-Fr.-Lat. ) Dweller at a MOUNTAIN J Mountain [O.Fr. montaine (mod. montagne), L.Lat. montanea ; Lat. montana, a hilly district] Montagne-Fayel is in the Somme Dept. MOUNTFORD = Montford = Montfort, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)