Montana comes from the Spanish and Latin word for "mountain" and is best known as the name of the Rocky Mountain state. As a girls' name it took off in the 1990s, with a boost from the TV character Hannah Montana a decade later. In the United States Montana peaked at number 592 in 2000, slipped out of the top 1000 and has been recovering lately, from number 1738 in 2020 to number 1033 in 2025.