Miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

and Millar are surnames of English,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, Irish or

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

origin. Miller is a common surname in: the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(where it is the 7th most common surname),

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

(14th),

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

(17th),

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located so ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

(18th),

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

(22nd),

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

(24th),

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

(36th) and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

(38th).

History

There are two

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

ous forms of ''Miller'', one that began as an

occupational surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

for a

miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

and another that began as a

toponymic surname A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a surname or byname derived from a place name,

for people from a locale in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. ''Miller'' of the occupational origin may also be translated from many

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

surnames from other

European languages There are over 250 languages indigenous to Europe, and most belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. The three larges ...

, such as '' Mueller'', ''

Müller Müller may refer to: Companies * Müller (company), a German multinational dairy company ** Müller Milk & Ingredients, a UK subsidiary of the German company * Müller (store), a German retail chain * GMD Müller, a Swiss aerial lift manufacturi ...

'', '' Mühler'', '' Moller'', ''

Möller :''see also Müller (surname), Müller Moller, Möller, Møller or von Möller is a surname. 'Möller' means 'Miller'. Notable people with the surname include: *Adolf Möller, German rower *Aksel Møller (1906–1958), Danish politician *Ale Möl ...

'', ''

Møller Møller () is a Danish surname, referring to an occupation as a Miller, equivalent of the Scottish/English ''Miller (name), Miller'', the German ''Müller'' etc. Møller is the twentieth commonest surname in Denmark.Myller, and others. There is also a form in the early English linguistics as ''Milleiir''. The standard modern word represents the northern

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

term, an agent derivative of mille 'mill', reinforced by

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

(see Milner). In southern, western, and central England, Millward (literally, 'mill keeper') was the usual term. The name Miller also has a history in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, notably

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

where many migrants from Northern England and Scotland settled in the 17th century Ulster plantations. In 2020, Miller was the 24th most common surname on the birth, death and marriage registers in Scotland; Millar is 75th.

In the United States

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Miller was the 7th most common surname in the United States, the number of occurrences was 1,161,437. In 2007, about 1 in every 25

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...

were named Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller or Davis. Miller was the seventh most common surname. The surname Miller in the United States can also be the result of

anglicization Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English languag ...

of: *surnames of German origin as

, " Mueller", " Moeller", "

Muller Muller is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: A–H *Alexandre Muller (born 1997), French tennis player * A. Charles Muller (born 1953), translator * Bauke Muller (born 1962), Dutch bridge player * Bennie Muller (1938–2024), ...

" and "

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

", all of which are cognates of Miller *surnames from other European languages, for example: French - Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins and Moulin, Dutch - Molenaar, Mulder and Smulders, Danish -

Molinaro Molinaro is an Italian-language occupational surname for a miller. Notable people with the surname include: * Al Molinaro, American actor * Cristian Molinaro, Italian football player * Édouard Molinaro, French film director and screenwriter * Ge ...

and

Molinari Molinari is an Italian language occupational surname for a miller. Notable people with this surname include: * Adriana Molinari, American (née Argentine) pornographic actress * Alberto Molinari (born 1965), Italian actor, producer, and director ...

, Spanish - Molinero or Molino (= mill), Romanian - Morariu, Hungarian - Molnár, Slavic - Mlinar, Mlinarić or Melnik, Greek - Mylonas (Μυλωνάς) etc. Miller is also the third most common surname among Jews in the United States (after Cohen and Levy), from the

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

cognate of Müller, which would be Miller (מיללער) or Milner (מילנער). Miller is also the most common surname in the

Amish The Amish (, also or ; ; ), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, church fellowships with Swiss people, Swiss and Alsace, Alsatian origins. As they ...

, originating from Müller in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller English-language surnames Occupational surnames Scottish toponymic surnames Surnames of British Isles origin Surnames of English origin Surnames of Ulster-Scottish origin Surnames of Scottish origin English-language occupational surnames

History

In the United States

See also

References