ORIGIN OF NAME
Until about 1100 A.D. most people in Europe had only one name. As the population increased it became awkard to live in a village where perhaps one third of the mails were named John, Joseph or William and so forth. Individual surnames originated for the purpose of more specific identification. The four primary sources for second names were occupation, location, father's name and personal characteristics. For example, the John who lived over the hill became known as John Overhill, the John who lived near a stream might be called John Brook or John Atbrook. The surname MONTAGNA appears to be locational in orgin, and is believed to be associated with the Italians, meaning ' one who lived in the mountains".
Different spellings of the original surname are a commonoccurance. Dictionaries of surnames indicate probable spelling variations. The most prominent variation of MONRAGNA are Montagne, Montagni and Montagnas.
Information available indicates in 1971 there were aproximatly 350 heads of households in the United States with the old and distinguished MONTAGNA name. The United States Census Breau in 1970 estimated that there were approximately 3.1 persons per household in America. This would mean that a total of 1085 people in the United States carried the MONTAGNA name in 1970.
MEANING OF SHIELD
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The fighting men of the middle ages wore a metal suit of armor for protection. Since his suit of armor included a helmet that compleatly covered the head of the man, a knight in full battle dress was unreconizable. To prevent friend from attacking friend during a battle, it became necessary for each knight to identify himself. This was accomplished by painting colorful patterns on their battle shields. These patterns were also woven into cloth surcoats which were worn over their suit of armor. From this the term "coat of arms" was born.
As the pratice grew popular, it became more likley that two knights unknown to eachother would use the same insignia. To prevent this, records were kept. This recordgranted the right of a particular patern to a particular knight. His family also shared his right to display the coat of arms. Many of these records have been preserved in book form. The records list the family name and an exact discription of the "coat of arms" granted to that family.
In our matter-of-fact day and age a "coat of arms" is one of the rare devices remaining that can provide an incentive to preserve our heritage.
The MONTAGNA coat of arms illistrated is a heraldic artist's drawing from information officially recorded in ancient heraldic archives. Documentation for the MONTAGNA coat of arms design can be found in Rietstap Armorial General.
In the language of the old heraldic artist the description of the shield is as follows: "D' or a un mont isole de trois coupeaux de sin". translated the description of the shield is: "Dold: a green isolated mound of three hills".
The shield has a gold background with three green hills in the center.
