One of the most stressful, but fun experiences ever is naming a child. We are more traditional naming our children with good old fashioned names that people have heard of before. For the most part, there aren’t any other children their age with the same name but people do know how to pronounce them.

I am not so fortunate. 🙂 Now don’t take me wrong. I love my name. I love the culture, the history, and the family ties behind it. I just wish I could hear it pronounced correctly more often. I don’t know how many different pronunciations I’ve heard for Montserrat (my full first name) or even Montse (my nickname). I guess that’s to be expected as Montserrat comes from Spain, more specifically it’s a mountain by Barcelona. Americans just don’t have the Spanish accent down! You can read all about how to pronounce Montserrat here.

My paternal grandfather was born and raised in Barcelona. Our family history runs deep in Catalonia. My grandmother, in her research, even found a Montserrat back in the 1500’s who shares my same birthday! Too bad it’s a he.

My grandfather settled in Salt Lake City shortly after he married my grandmother who is from there. They moved back to Barcelona when my father was a teenager. My dad says Montserrat was a popular name and he just liked it. There’s no special meaning, Montserrat means “jagged saw (serat) mountain (mont).” Several years later when I came along he had to talk my mom into naming me Montserrat. I grew up being called Montse.

The funniest part about naming me Montse happened about 10 months after I was born. My parents flew to Barcelona for a trip. Of course they had to visit the Montserrat Monastery. My mom was in for a bit of a surprise. My dad forgot to mention that the reason there was a monastery there was because it housed La Moreneta, the statue of the Black Madonna! Quite a shock for a Mormon mother to take in!

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