MOUNTAIN

A name of place. This name once gave occasion to a pun which would have been excellent, had the allusion been made to any other book than the Holy Scriptures. Dr. Mountain, chaplain to Charles H., was asked one day by that monarch to whom he should present a certain bishopric just then vacant. "If you had but faith, sire," replied he, "I could tell you to whom." "How so," said Charles, "if I had but faith." "Why, yes," said the witty cleric, "your majesty might then say to this Mountain, be thou removed into that sea." The chaplain succeeded.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

MOUNTAIN. 1. From residence near one. In H.R. Supra I\Iontem. 2. Monsieur de Montaigne, probabl}' grandson, and certainlj' heir to the estates, of Michael de Montaigne, the great French essayist, escaped from France at the Rev. of the Edict of Nantes, and settled in Norfolk. Jacob his son and successor anglicized the name to its present form.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.