Fortin

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

Fortin is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• English58%

  A small fort; a fortlet.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• French29%

  dérivé du latin Fortis, de fortis ‘fort’.

  as a name·Dictionnaire des noms de famille du Canada français. Anthroponymie et généalogie. 2e édition

• Spanish6.2%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Fortin in Spanish.

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Fortin is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French surname3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Canada, United States, Belgium

  Also written Fortìn

• Spanish surname6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Honduras, Mexico, United States, Philippines

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Fortín, Fortim, Fortìn

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Fortín

• Arabic surname3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Canada, Egypt, Palestine

  Also written Fortín

52 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Fortin is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Italian, forma reduzida ou apocopada de Fortino

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

• In Italian, Variante di Forti

  as a name·Dizionario dei cognomi italiani

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Augustin Félix Fortinb. 1763FRFrench painter and sculptor (1763-1832)
• Charles Fortinb. 1815FRFrench painter (1815-1865)
• Marc-Aurèle Fortinb. 1888CAQuebec painter (1888-1970)
• Michel Fortinb. 1937FRFrench actor (1937–2011)
• Jean-François Fortinb. 1947FRFrench businessman
• Rhéal Fortinb. 1970CACanadian politician
• M.A. Fortinb. 1978CACanadian screenwriter
• Virginie Fortinb. 1986CACanadian comedian
• Filippo Fortinb. 1989ITItalian track cyclist and bicycle racer
• Valentine Fortinb. 1999FRFrench cyclist

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Fortin mean, and where does it come from?

A small fort; a fortlet. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

How do you pronounce Fortin?

A machine transcription gives /ˈfɔɹtɪn/ (IPA) for English.

In which country does Fortin have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 15 thousand people named Fortin in Canada, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled fortin.

How common is the name Fortin?

In the United States, the national register counted 8,814 people named Fortin in 2010, about 1 in 38 thousand residents.

How common is Fortin compared with other names?

In Canada, Fortin is the 384th most common surname of 699,524 surnames recorded there.