Millan
A name that can point to either a French-emilian source or, in Scotland and Ireland, a Gaelic family name behind MacMillan and related forms.
The #3,339 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 28,766 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Millan has more than one likely source. In French usage it may be a shortened form of Emilian/Émilien, ultimately from the Latin name Aemilius. In Gaelic contexts it is associated with MacMillan and related spellings, from Gaelic Mac Mhaolain, meaning roughly 'son of the bald one' or 'son of the tonsured servant/monk.'
History
The name appears in historical surname dictionaries both as a French-derived form and as a shortened or anglicized Highland/Irish Gaelic surname. In Scottish records it is closely tied to MacMillan, while Irish sources record forms such as O'Mullane, Millane, and Millan. Because the same spelling can reflect different origins in different places, family history and locality are important for interpretation.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th- and early-20th-century surname writers explicitly noted Millan as both a French form and a spelling found among Gaelic families, which makes it a good example of a surname with more than one origin trail.
From the historical record
“2 Milo : V. iinder Miles. MILLAN IV. Mac Millan. 2 the French Millan (also Milhan), an abbrev. form of Emilian (Emilien), the Latin Mmilian-us, t. JEmili-us: v. Mill (Fr.) MILLAR for Millen, q.v. MILLARD (Fr.) Jhe French Mille (v. Mill (Fr.) + the dim. suff. -ard [Teut. hard]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)