WANDA MILLER

Of uncertain origin. Attempts have been made to derive it from various Germanic and Slavic roots. It was certainly in use in Poland in the 19th century, and is found in Polish folk tales as the name of a princess. The derivation may well be from the ethnic term Wend (see Wendell). The name was introduced to the English-speaking world by Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramée), who used it for the heroine of her novel Wanda (1883).

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.