Explore the Family Name Mill

The meaning of Mill

1. Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived near a mill, from Middle English mille, melle, mulle ‘mill’ (assimilated forms of Old English mylen). It was usually in effect an occupational name for a worker at a mill or for the miller himself. The mill, whether powered by water, wind, or (occasionally) animals, was an important center in every medieval settlement; it was normally operated by an agent of the local landowner, and individual peasants were compelled to come to him to have their grain ground into flour, a proportion of the ground grain being kept by the miller by way of payment. 2. English: from the Middle English female personal name Mill, a short form of Millicent (compare Millett) or perhaps from a variant of the Middle English male personal name Mile (see Miles). 3. German: habitational name from Millen (North Rhine-Westphalia). 4. Dutch (Van Mill): habitational name from Mill in North Brabant.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.