Montgomery (name)

Montgomery or Montgomerie is a surname from a place name in Normandy.[1] Although there are many stories of its origin,[2][3][4][5] An old theory explains that the name is a corruption of "Gomer's Mount" or "Gomer's Hill" (Latin: Mons Gomeris), any of a number of hills in Europe named in attribution to the biblical patriarch Gomer,[2] but it does not explain the final -y or -ie (the phonetical evolution would have been *Montgomers) and it does not correspond to the old mentions of the place name Montgommery in Normandie : Monte Gomeri in 1032 - 1035, de Monte Gomerico in 1040 and de Monte Gumbri in 1046 - 1048.[6] More relevant is the explanation by the Germanic first name Gumarik,[7] a compound of guma "man" (see bridegroom) and rik "powerful", that regularly gives the final -ry (-ri) in the French first names and surnames (Thierry, Amaury, Henry, etc.). Moreover, the name is still used as a surname in France as Gommery,[8] from the older first name Gomeri.[9]

The earliest known person to be styled with the name is Roger de Montgomerie, found in a contemporary document as father of the 11th century Norman nobleman, Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury who owned the village of Montgommery, today in the Calvados département. Alternatively, a Hugh de Montgomery is given as the earl's father by a Norman chronicler writing in the next generation and some have hypothesized an error whereby Hugh is actually father of the elder Roger.

The original family were prominent in early Anglo-Norman England and gave their name to Montgomeryshire, in neighbouring Wales. In some cases, the surname of modern Montgomerys is probably derived from this Welsh place name[10] (the Scottish Montgomerys for example).[11] Seventeen counties in the United States of America as well as districts, neighbourhoods and streets around the world, have been named for people named Montgomery.

It may refer to:

Surname

In science and humanities

In arts and entertainment

In sports

In politics

In the military

Other

In fiction

Given name

Fictional

See also

References

  1. ↑ David Dobson. The Scottish Surnames of Colonial America. Baltomore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003 p. 108.
  2. 1 2 Clemens, William Montgomery (October 1916) [1916], "ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF MONTGOMERY", The Montgomery Family Magazine
  3. ↑ "Montgomery Family History". Ancestry.com. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Montgomery Family Crest and Name History". HouseofNames.com. Swyrich. Retrieved April 24, 2012. External link in |publisher=, |work= (help)
  5. ↑ "Last name: Montgomery". The Internet Surname Database. Name Origin Research. Retrieved April 24, 2012. External link in |publisher=, |work= (help)
  6. ↑ Ernest Nègre, Toponymie générale de la France, Librairie Droz, 1998, p. 1668, n° 29164
  7. ↑ Albert Dauzat, Charles Rostaing, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieu en France, Librairie Guénégaud, Paris, 1979, isbn=2-85023-076-6, p. 470b
  8. ↑ Géopatronyme : repartition of births with the surname Gommery in France
  9. ↑ Nègre, 1663
  10. ↑ Hey, David (2000). Family Names and Family History. Hambledon Continuum. p. 46. ISBN 1 85285 255 0.
  11. ↑ Barrow, GWS (1973). The Kingdom of the Scots: Government, Church and Society From the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 334.


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