Millen
A surname that is often linked to the mill or to Gaelic Mac Mhaoláin forms, with English and Irish strands in its history.
The #7,068 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 65,177 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name has more than one plausible origin. In English usage, it appears to be a variant of Millen/Millin, connected with the word for a mill or with a place-based name involving a mill-stream; one 19th-century source also treats it as a local name, possibly of Dutch origin. In Irish records, Millen can also be an anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Mhaoláin/Moylan-type names, where the root relates to 'maol,' meaning 'bald' or 'tonsured.'
History
Historical notices place the name in London by the 16th century, and later English surname dictionaries and county-distribution studies treat it as a recognized but uncommon form. In Irish material, Millen appears alongside other anglicized Mac Mhaoláin spellings in early modern records, suggesting independent Irish usage as well as English or Dutch lines. Because the surname is attested in more than one tradition, modern bearers may descend from different origins.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A late-19th-century English surname survey specifically listed Millen as a form related to Milne in Kent.
From the historical record
“Stream [O.E. myl{e)n + bume] MILLEN 1 I a var. of Millan, q.v. MILLIN ) 2 an Anglicization of the German Miihlen (Mills) MILLER (Eng.) Corn-Grinder [M.E. millere, mellere, for earlier milner(e, mylner(e; f. O.E. myl{e)n, a mill] See Milner. MILLERSON, (the) Miller's Son.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)