Miller
Masculine · Old English roots · “one who grinds grain”
Miller is given to both — 11,172 boys and 2,763 girls since 1880. See Miller as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Miller is one of the oldest job descriptions in English put to work as a first name: the person at the mill, grinding the village's grain. It is a surname almost everyone in America can spell on the first try, and it comes with the ready-made short form Millie. Say it aloud and it lands in two easy beats, the way Parker, Tucker and Cooper do.
How old is the name Miller?
Miller was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Miller is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 8,700 people named Miller are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Miller most popular?
Miller peaked in 2025, reaching #369 nationally. Today it ranks #369, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From mylen (Old English, 'mill') to Miller
The story of Miller
Miller began as an occupational surname in medieval England and Scotland, given to the man who ran the mill — one of the few pieces of heavy machinery a village possessed, and one of its busiest social centers. It grew into one of the most widespread surnames in the English-speaking world, swelled further in America when German-speaking families arriving in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries translated Müller into its English twin. From there it followed the well-worn American path from last name to first, a route that has carried Parker, Harper and Hunter along with it. The habit is strongest in the South, and Miller's use as a given name is concentrated there too.
Meaning
one who grinds grain — a mill worker
From Middle English millere, from the mill itself (Old English mylen, borrowed from Latin molina).
How the name formed
- mylenOld English, 'mill'
- millereMiddle English
- Miller
Related forms: Müller · Molenaar · Meunier · Molnár · Molinari · Molinero
Pronouncing Miller
MIL-er
Two syllables, stress on the first, identical to the English word miller. No ambiguity in American English.
Nicknames for Miller
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2025864 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #369reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +84.6%864 in 2025, from 468
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Miller in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Müller in German — related form
- Molenaar in Dutch — related form
- Meunier in French — related form
- Molnár in Hungarian — related form
- Molinari in Italian — related form
- Molinero in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, North Carolina.
Millers among us
people named Miller are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,977 born in 2025 was named Miller
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jamey test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Miller's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jamey climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jamey's path sketches the road Miller is walking now.
Miller is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Miller is headed
Miller looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 37% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Miller beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Miller in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling nearly every American already knows from the surname, so it rarely needs to be repeated or corrected.
- One clear pronunciation, with no competing versions to head off.
- Carries a ready-made short form in Millie, plus the informal Mills.
- Recognizable across languages through its cognates — Müller, Molnár, Meunier — even where the English form is unfamiliar.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl; there is no separate feminine spelling to choose between.
- It is a very common last name, so forms, roll calls and email systems will sometimes read it as a surname in the wrong column — and a classmate may well have it as theirs.
- Miller is also a large American beer brand, an association strong enough that adults will occasionally make the joke.
- The name leans to boys without settling there. A girl named Miller will be in the smaller group, and Millie may pull her toward a more traditionally feminine everyday name.
- It is climbing quickly. A child named Miller now will likely be the only one in the class, but more are arriving each year.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Miller
Masculine · Old English roots · #369 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Millers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,700 people named Miller are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Miller in 2025?
- Miller ranks #369 among US boy names in 2025, with 864 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Miller?
- About 1 in every 1,977 US boys born in 2025 was named Miller — 864 in all.
- Will my child share the name Miller with classmates?
- Miller will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Miller
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Andre#368 · Marco#370 · Manuel#371 · Kyaire#367 · Matthias#372 · Erick#366 · Onyx#365 · Grady#373
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Miller? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Miller and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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