This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the mill.' from residence thereby. There is a column of Mills in the London Directory. A large number of these are local in origin. The final 's' (probably genitive) is common to all monosyllabic local surnames; compare Brooks, Briggs, Styles, Dykes, Holmes, &c. For instances, v. Mill and Miln.

(2) Bapt. 'the son of Miles.' a once popular font-name, or 'the son of Millicent,' from the nick. Mille, or Milly; v. Milson.

Margery Mylys, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

1645. Baptised — Ann, d. Anthony Mills: St. James, Clerkenwell.

The name is so universal that modern instances are needless.

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Miles'; v. Mills (2). This is still a popular personal name in North England.

William fil. Milon, Bedfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Milo le Messer, Bedfordshire, ibid.

Peter Myles, Kent, ibid.

Wychard Miles, Lincolnshire, ibid.

1584. Alex. Miles, Northamptonshire: Register of the University of Oxford.

1694-5. Lewis Myles, Pembrokeshire: ibid.

These three names are all rather rare, Moyles being more numerous then the other two. It is only since the beginning of the nineteenth century that that is so. Up to 1750 Moyles hardly appears at all while Moyle is met frequently from an early date: for example Hugh Moyle was a Kildare witness in 1235, two of the name were jurors in Waterford in 1312, two brothers Moyle give a pledge at Clonmel in 1457 and Moyles are named among the 1544 muster of kern in all parts of the country, a Moyle of Co. Wicklow was among the men outlawed for participation in the Rising of 1641, and so on in deeds, rolls, fiants, wills, marriage licence bonds etc. In the latter relating to the Cloyne diocese Moyles, equated with Miles, begins to appear in the eighteenth century. In that and similar cases the name is derived either from the Latin miles (a soldier) or from the forename Milo. In some of the earlier instances Moyle may be the word maol (bald), an epithet which, like rua and láidir eventually became a hereditary surname: this might be expected among the kern; one of them in MacGinness's muster (i.e. from east Ulster) is returned as Rory O'Moyle, but as there is no surname resembling that we may regard the insertion of the O as one of those not infrequent clerical errors which often make the identification of mediaeval and early modern personal and place-names difficult. An occasional MacMoyle has also been noticed.

Birth registrations show that a century ago the name Moyles was quite numerous in Co. Mayo but little known elsewhere, while Moyle was already extremely rare.

Now the names under consideration are not closely associated with any particular part of the country.

(See also Mullery infra)

1 from the classical Milo, with the English genit. -s suffix. [Latin Milo(n, Greek Μίλων; prob. rel. to Greek μύλλω, to mill, crush] Milo occurs in Domesday Book as the name of a Norman landholder; and afterwards we find Milo le Messer.—Hundred Rolls Milo Basset.—Plac. de quo Warr.

2 the Latin Miles (= Soldier), used in the Middle Ages as a title.

Ego Godricus miles.—Chart. Edw. Conf., A.D. 1066.

Wychard miles.—Hundred Rolls . . . . a good knyght: his name was Mylis.—Morte d’ Arthur, I. xxi. 3 adopted as an English representative of the Irish Maelmordha = Noble Disciple [Irish mael, maol, disciple + mórdha, noble]

This name, when not an anglicized form of Ó Maolmhuire (see Mullery), is derived either from Latin miles (a soldier) or from the personal name Milo. Miles and Myles are scattered, but the variant Moyles is mainly found in Co. Mayo. SIF 117

“Soldier” in Latin. Also variant on Michael (q.v.).

(Welsh) Descendant of Miles (soldier).

Perhaps from residence near mills, in some instances. I am rather disposed, however, to consider it the genitive of an abbreviated form of Michael (see Miles), and the occurrence of Millson seems to favour this derivation. But see Milson, which is 'local.'

Local. Living near a mill. Gaelic, Milidh, a soldier, the d being silent.

Geoffry, Richard, Ralph, Walter, Robert, William, Miles, Normandy 1180-95 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Richard Miles, Engl. 1189 (Rot. Pip.). Of this name are the baronets Miles.

From the Dutch, Meijlis; from the Flemish, Miles, Milis; a personal name.

Miles. —This name has a characteristic distribution in the south of England, though absent, or rare, in the three south - west counties of Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset. It has its principal homes in Kent, Essex, Sussex, Dorset, Wilts, Gloucestershire, and Monmouthshire, the northern limit of its area being in Norfolk and Shropshire. It has been suggested by Bardsley and Lower that this name is sometimes derived from Milo, a Norman personal name in Domesday. Lower thinks that it may be also often a corruption of Michael. Judging, however, from the distribution in both cases, I should say that it has had little or no connection with Mitchell as representing Michael. Rather I would hold that it is connected with Mills, which has a similar distribution; and it is remarkable that in the three south - west counties where Mills is absent or infrequent, being represented in two of them by Mill, Miles is also absent or rare.

Mills. —This name is mostly confined to the southern half of England. Its chief homes are in Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hants, and Warwickshire. It is rare or infrequent in the south - west of England, where, in Cornwall and Devon, its place is to some extent supplied by Mill.