# Mills (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/mills/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

An English and Scottish occupational surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 151,942 |
| US rank (2010) | 182 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 2,032 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.7% (147,909 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /mɪlz/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From mills, in reference to mill owners and mill workers.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Mills in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 78% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 17% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.8% |
| Two or more races | 2.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Mills in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Turkey and Canada.

## People named Mills

- C. Wright Mills, American sociologist (1916–1962)
- John Mills, British actor (1908–2005)
- Hayley Mills, British actress (born 1946)
- Patty Mills, Australian basketball player (born 1988)
- Mike Mills, American musician; multi-instrumentalist for American alternative rock band R.E.M.
- Juliet Mills, British actress
- Billy Mills, American Olympic athlete (born 1938)
- Janet T. Mills, American politician and 75th governor of Maine (born 1947)
- Donna Mills, American actress
- Robert Mills, American physicist, co-author of the Yang-Mills theory
- Alley Mills, American actress
- Jeff Mills, American DJ, record producer, and composer

and 34 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Miles, Mullis, Millis, Mieles, Milewski, Millhouse, Milks, Malik, Myles, Mulcahy, Mulkey, Mielke.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.