Montgomery (name)

Montgomery (also spelled Montgomerie) is a surname derived from Saint-Germain-de-Montgommery in Normandy, France.[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 *Montgomer(s), *Montgomier) 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 (as in 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 Montgomery, 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 Counts de Montgomerie 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.

Montgomery may refer to: