Among the hypotheses concerning the origin of Montreal's name, the most acceptable totoponymy is the one that finds it to be a variant of Mount Royal.[1] In the 16th centuryréal was a variant ofroyal, hence the contraction of Mont Royal that gaveMont Réal or Montreal.
HistorianMarcel Trudel asked: "Where does the name "Mount Royal" come from? In honour ofCardinal de Medici,Archbishop of Monreale? In honour of Claude de Pontbriand, son of the Seigneur of Montreal? Or simply in honour of the king? No explanation has been given."[2] Claude de Pontbriand (landlord of theChâteau de Montréal in France) accompaniedJacques Cartier on his expedition up theSaint Lawrence River and was with him on October 3, 1535, when he reachedHochelaga, on the site of the present-day city of Montreal.
The name Montreal referred first to themountain, then to theisland and finally to thecity itself.
The original name for the settlement that would later become Montreal wasVille-Marie. When the missionary societySociété Notre-Dame de Montréal sentPaul Chomedey de Maisonneuve to found a city on theisland of Montreal in 1642, they named the settlementVille-Marie in honour of theVirgin, protectress of the venture. Nonetheless, from the very beginning both the settlement of Ville-Marie and the mountain were known as Montreal to many people, including some mapmakers of the period. In the 18th century, for no official reason, the name Montreal supplanted that of Ville-Marie. Up until then, the city was called either Montreal and/or Ville-Marie.[3]
The nameVille-Marie now refers to theborough encompassingOld Montreal (the site of Fort Ville-Marie), as well as the downtown core and adjacent areas.
1535 – On October 3,Jacques Cartier climbed up the mountain and named itMount Royal. He wrote: "Nous nommasmes icelle montaigne le mont Royal." (We named the said mountain Mount Royal.) The name Montreal is generally thought to be derived from "Mount Royal", the name given to the mountain by Cartier in 1535.
1575 – In hisCosmographie universelle de tout le monde, historiographerFrançois de Belleforest was the first to use the formMontréal with reference to this area. In translation, it reads: "Let us now look at Hochelaga... in the midst of the countryside is the village, orCité royale, adjacent to a mountain on which farming is practiced. The Christians call this city Montreal...".
1601 – On his map, Guillaume Le Vasseur wroteHochelaga for the inhabited area and called the hill Mont Royal.
1609 –Marc Lescarbot called the settlement "Hochelaga, ville des Sauvages".
1612 – On Champlain's map, the mountain is called Montreal.
1642 – The mission named Ville-Marie was built at Place Royale.
1705 – Montreal is now the official name for the city formerly named Ville-Marie.
^Leclerc, Jean-François (2002). "Montréal, la ville aux cent clochers : regards des Montréalais sur leurs lieux de culte".Éditions Fides [fr] (in French). Quebec City.
