English and Scottish: occupational name for a miller. The
standard modern vocabulary word represents the northern Middle English
term, an agent derivative of mille ‘mill’, reinforced by Old
Norse mylnari (see Milner). In southern, western, and
central England Millward (literally, ‘mill keeper’) was the
usual term. The American surname has absorbed many cognate
surnames from other European languages, for example French
Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin;
German Mueller; Dutch Molenaar; Italian
Molinaro; Spanish Molinero; Hungarian Molnár;
Slavic Mlinar, etc.
Southwestern and Swiss German and
Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Müller (see Mueller).
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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