How Do You Spell Monterrane?

Pittsboro, NC – I work and live in Monterrane, and I love it here. But one question I hear often from folks is how exactly do you spell Monterrane? There seems to be some debate about that. The joke is that even the locals don’t know how to spell it.

Mis-spelling Monterrane

Here are some of the ways I’ve seen Monterrane misspelled:

• Mount Terrane or Mt. Terrane
• Or Mount Terrain, Mount Terane, Mount Train, Mt. Terrain, Mt. Terane, and Mt. Train
• Or there’s Monterane, Monterain, Montterrane and Monterraine
• And then there’s Manterrane, Manterane, Manterrain, and Manteraine

My head is beginning to spin.

Monterrane – What Does It Mean?

I began wondering about the origin of the name Monterrane. Where does it come from? What does it mean?

My Latin-loving photographer friend Hal Goodtree (his photo above) immediately had an answer. “Monte- comes from the Latin for mountain,” he announced, “and terra means land. So Monterrane is ‘high land.'”

He can always whip this stuff out without looking it up. Brilliant. But wrong.

I looked it up. There’s no real word origin for Monterrane. But Monterrey seems similar. Mont from the Latin for mountain (Hal had that part right) plus Rey for king. The town of Monterrey in Mexico and Monterrey Bay in California are both named for Gaspar de Zuniga, 5th Count of Monterrey and Viceroy of New Spain.  The accepted translation for Monterrey is “mountain of the King.” (source: Google Books: California Place Names).

More About Monterrane

But however you spell it, Monterrane is a wonderful neighborhood. All of the houses are surrounded by conservation buffers, and this beautiful area offers peaceful country living close to shopping and dining in downtown Pittsboro, nearby Apex and wonderful Chapel Hill.

Get in touch if you’re looking at homes in the area. I’ll show you around Montterrane. Or Monta Rain. Which ever you prefer.