ADAM MILLER

In the Bible, the name of the first man (Genesis 2–3). It probably derives from Hebrew adama ‘earth’ it is a common feature of creation legends that God or a god fashioned the first human beings from earth or clay and breathed life into them. The name was subsequently borne by a 7th-century Irish abbot of Fermo in Italy. It has been very popular in the English-speaking world since the 1960s. In Hebrew it is a generic term for ‘man’ (Genesis 5:2) and has never been considered a personal name, although Hava ‘Eve’ has enjoyed popularity as a Jewish name.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a miller. The standard modern vocabulary word represents the northern Middle English term, an agent derivative of mille ‘mill’, reinforced by Old Norse mylnari (see Milner). In southern, western, and central England Millward (literally, ‘mill keeper’) was the usual term. The American surname has absorbed many cognate surnames from other European languages, for example French Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin; German Mueller; Dutch Molenaar; Italian Molinaro; Spanish Molinero; Hungarian Molnár; Slavic Mlinar, etc.