# Smillie (surname)

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

A surname from Middle English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | nickname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 741 |
| US rank (2010) | 31,285 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 416,661 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.9% (713 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Smelley, Smellie |

## Etymology

From a derivative of Middle English smel (“smell”), hence a nickname for someone notorious for giving off a smell that was obnoxious even by medieval standards, or for someone who made great use of perfumes and pomanders.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Smillie 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) | 92% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 3.5% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 0.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Smillie in the United States.

## People named Smillie

- James David Smillie, American painter and illustrator (1833-1909)

## Similar surnames

Small, Smiley, Smalley, Smail, Samuel, Snell, Schnell, Shanley, Schimmel, Scannell, Schmoll, Shemwell.

## 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.