DEVON MILLER

Mainly North American: of uncertain origin. It is found among Jews as well as gentiles. Among the latter it is generally from the name of the English county, either directly or as a transferred use of the surname, which derives from a British tribal name said to mean ‘worshippers of the god Dumnōnos’.

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.