Miller

surname · Latin script

Meaning: assimilated form of Milner; first attested Ralph Muller 1296

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/mɪlɚ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Miller is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Germany it is the most common surname.

rarermore common
  • CNChina≈1 in 266(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 286
  • NZNew Zealand≈1 in 332

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Miller itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈5,200,000 people, est.

#50 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

5 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
651 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 266 (inferred from the name graph)

China, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

MillerLatin(measured from records)
מילרHebrew(measured from records)
ΜυλλερGreek(measured from records)
মিলারBengali(measured from records)
뮐러Hangul(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Müller in DE Germany, CH Switzerland.

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.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

assimilated form of Milner; first attested Ralph Muller 1296

Sources 1

  • A Dictionary of English Surnames

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Miller counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Miller is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈5,200,000 est.≈1 in 266—Miller52
US United States#61,161,4371 in 2861.2MMiller651
DE Germany#1≈460,000 est.≈1 in 176listedMüller270
GB United Kingdom#10≈190,000 est.≈1 in 33921Miller360
EG Egypt#270≈110,000 est.≈1 in 909—Miller47
CH Switzerland#152,889as Müller1 in 15953KMüller130
NZ New Zealand#8≈15,000 est.≈1 in 332—Miller174

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Miller is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Mïller, Mill-Er

  • Spanish surname13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, France, Argentina, Colombia

    Languages: Spanish, French, Romanian

    Also written Millër, Míller, Mìller, Mïllër, Mîllër

  • Russian surname41 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Kazakhstan, United States, Poland

    Languages: Russian, Polish, Ukrainian

    Also written Миллер, Міллер, Міллєр, Miler, Мілер

  • Greek surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

    Also written Miler, Μιλλερ, Míller, Μίλλερ, Μιλερ

  • Indonesian surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Malaysia

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Millër

88 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.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Miller is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In English, English equivalent used in place of a German surname

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In English, represents the Northern ME term, an agent deriv. of mille, milne Mill, reinforced by the cogn. ON mylnari; in S, W, and Midland England the equivalent Millward was used. Vars.: Millar (Scot.); Milner (commonest in Yorks., retaining the n- of the ME and OE word); Meller.

    as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

  • In English, An English and Scottish surname originating as an occupation for a miller.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In English, Owner or operator of a mill.

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

  • In German, Schreibvariante zu 'Müller'; mit i statt ü/ö. Die Karte zeigt Monophthong- und Vokalvarianten o/u, ö/ü in den Namen. 7289 Träger.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus

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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Agatha Christie, b. 1890Arthur Miller, b. 1915Portia Simpson-Miller, b. 1945Leszek Miller, b. 1946Bennett Miller, b. 1966Jonny Lee Miller, b. 1972Marisa Miller, b. 1978Matthew Mercer, b. 1982Heath Slater, b. 1983Ezra Miller, b. 1992

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).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Miller,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 102 sources across 50 countries.

Official registers attesting Miller
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020101.2M#7
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020201.1M#7
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020001.1M#6
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)2024656#1,920

Reference works 10

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

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

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Miller mean, and where does it come from?
assimilated form of Milner; first attested Ralph Muller 1296 Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
In which country does Miller have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 5.2 million people named Miller in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled miller.
How common is the name Miller?
In the United States, the national register counted 1,161,437 people named Miller in 2010, about 1 in 286 residents.
How common is Miller compared with other names?
In Germany, Miller is the most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
How do you pronounce Miller?
A machine transcription gives /mɪlɚ/ (IPA) for English.

What do you want to know about Miller?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/miller

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Miller” — the most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Miller parses inside a full name →