Mills
Masculine · “of the mills”
Mills is given to both — 919 boys and 126 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Mills is a surname that says where a family lived: at the mills. It is one of the plainest names in English and one of the oldest kinds — a place, given to the people who could be found there.
How old is the name Mills?
Mills first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Mills alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 600 people named Mills are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mills most popular?
Mills peaked in 1882, reaching #691 nationally. Today it ranks #2765, 2,074 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From myln to Mills
The story of Mills
A mill was the piece of infrastructure a medieval village could not do without, and it fixed a family in place more firmly than almost anything else — you were the people at the mill, and the name followed. Mills and Mill and Milner and Miller all come out of that one arrangement. The surname crossed to America early and became a given name there in the nineteenth century, in the same era that produced Wells, Banks and Chase as first names. It has come back recently along with the rest of the plain surname stock.
Meaning
of the mills
From Old English myln, itself borrowed from Latin molina, 'mill'. The surname was given to someone who lived or worked at a mill, and the -s is possessive rather than plural in origin: the man at the mill's. It is one of the commonest surname patterns in England, alongside Brooks, Banks and Fields.
How the name formed
- myln
- Mill
- Mills
Related forms: Miller · Müller · Molenaar
Pronouncing Mills
MILZ
One syllable, and there is nothing in it that anyone gets wrong. The s is voiced, as in bells.
Nicknames for Mills
Moderate
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 202546 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #691reached in 1882
- Change vs 2023
- +35.3%46 in 2025, from 34
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.
Mills in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Miller in English — related form
- Müller in German — related form
- Molenaar in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, South Carolina, Texas.
Millss among us
people named Mills are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 37,132 born in 2025 was named Mills
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Mills sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mills is headed
Mills looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% 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.
Mills beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mills in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, five letters, and impossible to mispronounce or misspell.
- A genuine and very common English surname, so it carries no invented weight.
- Sits well with a longer first or middle name, which single-syllable names generally do.
- It is a plain plural noun and will read as a surname to most people who meet it first.
- There is no natural nickname and nowhere shorter to go.
- Mills, Miles and Milo sit close together in speech and get confused.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Mills
Masculine · #2765 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Millss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Mills are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mills in 2025?
- Mills ranks #2765 among US boy names in 2025, with 46 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mills?
- About 1 in every 37,132 US boys born in 2025 was named Mills — 46 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mills with classmates?
- Mills will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mills
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Asante#2765 · Yandel#2765 · Sheldon#2765 · Dwight#2765 · Arlin#2765 · Jafet#2765 · Stephon#2765 · Shlok#2765
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mills? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mills and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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