LEONARD MILLER

From an Old French personal name of Germanic origin, derived from leon ‘lion’ + hard ‘hardy, brave, strong’. This was the name of a 5th-century Frankish saint, the patron of peasants and horses. Although it was introduced into Britain by the Normans, Leonard was an uncommon name during the Middle Ages. It was revived in some areas towards the end of the 1400s, and in the 19th‐century became very popular. It is now also common as a Jewish name (compare Leon).

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.