Miller: Meaning of Baby Name Miller

About the Name Miller

Miller is an English occupational surname rooted in the Middle English and Old English word for a person who operated a grain mill — one of the most essential and ubiquitous tradespeople in medieval communities. The mill stood at the center of village economies, and millers occupied a position of genuine social importance, which is why the surname spread widely across England and later among English-speaking settlers worldwide. As a given name, Miller belongs to the well-established American tradition of transferring strong occupational surnames — Cooper, Fletcher, Mason, Tanner — into the first-name position, where they project a robust, grounded character.

Miller first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2011 and has been climbing ever since, reaching its all-time best rank of #438 in 2024 with 721 births — its peak is the most recent data point, meaning the name is actively ascending rather than declining. Earlier recent years confirm the upward trajectory: 559 births at #528 in 2023 and 468 births at #602 in 2022. Total top-1000 births across its fourteen-year run stand at 4,621, with the acceleration concentrated in the most recent years.

Miller's rise fits squarely into the broad surge of surname names for boys that has characterized American naming since the 2010s. Its two-syllable rhythm is easy and strong, and it carries professional associations — Arthur Miller the playwright, Glenn Miller the bandleader — without requiring any particular cultural allegiance. Recorded variants include Millard and Millen, though Miller itself in its unaltered occupational form is clearly the preferred choice for parents drawn to this name.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Miller

5,642

English baby names in our dictionary

3,391

English male names

379

6-letter M-names in our dictionary

767

M-male names total

2011–2025

years of US SSA records (14 total)

6,690

total US births named Miller (all years)

US Popularity History (2011–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Miller climbed 329 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#698 in 2020 → #369 in 2025).

Annual US births named Miller by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 864 boys named Miller (boy rank #369 that year).

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Miller Most Popular?

Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Miller the strongest states are Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia.

Strongest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Alabama	#316	184
2	Mississippi	#369	83
3	Georgia	#381	280
4	Tennessee	#396	191
5	South Carolina	#396	118
6	Kentucky	#401	97
7	North Carolina	#405	256
8	Arkansas	#434	76
9	Kansas	#455	34
10	Connecticut	#458	30

Weakest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	California	#828	186
2	Pennsylvania	#826	50
3	Florida	#723	71
4	Michigan	#709	60
5	Illinois	#706	55
6	Virginia	#699	55
7	Texas	#662	415
8	Indiana	#659	96
9	Minnesota	#652	51
10	Colorado	#627	55

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Miller in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Millard	One Who Grinds Grain. Occupational Surname.	Male	English
Millen	One Who Grinds Grain. Occupational Surname.	Male	English

Looking for names like Miller?

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Compare Miller to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Miller against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Miller vs Liam 239,320 births since 2014

Miller vs Noah 230,181 births since 2014

Miller vs Oliver 164,076 births since 2014

Miller vs William 159,918 births since 2014

Miller vs James 157,850 births since 2014

Miller vs Elijah 153,351 births since 2014

Miller vs Benjamin 147,449 births since 2014

Miller vs Lucas 141,302 births since 2014

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