HEATHER MILLER

From the vocabulary word denoting the hardy, brightly coloured plant (Middle English hather; the spelling was altered in the 18th century as a result of folk etymological association with heath). The name was first used in the late 19th century and became particularly popular from the mid-1940s.

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.