The History Of The Last Name Mueller

The last name Mueller is thought to have originated in Bavaria, Germany, and is the German word for miller (as a profession). It is the most common surname in Germany, Switzerland, and the French départements of Bas-Rhin and Moselle, and is the fifth most common surname in Austria. The name is derived from the Latin name Molinarius and the Old Germanic Mulinari.

Mueller is a common German surname

The surname Mueller was first found in Southern Germany, specifically in Bavaria, where it is thought to have originated and where they were established in the Middle Ages. The earliest records of the name can be found in the chronicles of Swabia, where a knight by the name of Conrad von Husen is noted to have become known as Mueller due to his ownership of a mill.

Over time, the name Mueller spread beyond Germany and can now be found in many countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Croatia, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and more. In the United States, it is the 4,126th most common surname, with approximately 93,095 people bearing the name.

Many notable individuals have borne the surname Mueller, including scientists such as German physicist Erwin Wilhelm Müller and German chemist Achim Müller; athletes like German footballers Dieter Müller and Martina Müller; and artists such as German writer and publisher Baal Müller and German poet Inge Müller.

Mueller is the fifth most common surname in Austria

The name Mueller is thought to have originated in Bavaria, Germany, and is the German word for "miller" (as in the profession). It is the most common surname in Germany, Switzerland, and the French départements of Bas-Rhin and Moselle. It is also the fifth most common surname in Austria.

As hereditary surnames began to be adopted in Germany in the 12th century, people often took on names that reflected their occupation. The name Mueller is an occupational name, derived from the Old Germanic "Mulinari", which is also the Latin "Molinarius". The English version of this common German surname is "Miller".

The modern form of the name, Mueller, is documented in the chronicles of Swabia, where a knight, Conrad von Husen, is noted to have become known as Mueller due to his ownership of a mill.

There are many regional variations of German surnames, owing to the many different cultural groups that lived in the German states in the medieval era. Some variations of the name Mueller include Mueller, Muller, Mueler, Muler, Miller, Moeller, Muellner, Milner, and Molner.

In the United States, the name Mueller is the 587th most popular surname, with an estimated 49,740 people bearing the name.

Mueller is an occupational name for a miller

The name Mueller is thought to have originated in Bavaria, Germany, where hereditary surnames began to be adopted in the 12th century. People were often identified by their occupation during this time, and Mueller is an occupational name for a miller, derived from the Old Germanic "Mulinari", which is the Latin "Molinarius". The name is also the German form of the Latin name "Molinarius", and "Mulinari" in Old German. The modern form of the name, Mueller, is documented in the chronicles of Swabia, where the knight Conrad von Husen is noted as having become known as Mueller for his ownership of a mill.

The name is the most common surname in Switzerland, Germany, and the French départements of Bas-Rhin and Moselle. It is also the fifth most common surname in Austria. The name is prevalent in many other countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, South Africa, France, and Luxembourg.

The Mueller surname has many variations, including Mueller, Muller, Mueler, Muler, Miller, Moeller, Muellner, Milner, and Molner. These variations often arise from regional differences in the German states, as well as the lack of standardised spelling rules in medieval times.

The Mueller surname is associated with many notable individuals, including:

• Robert Swan Mueller III, an American politician and the 6th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• Lisel Mueller, a German-born American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, translator, and academic teacher.
• Erwin Wilhelm Müller, a German physicist and the first person to experimentally observe atoms.
• Filip Müller, a Holocaust survivor and author of 'Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers'.
• Willy Müller, the inventor of the first automatic answering machine.

Mueller is derived from the Latin name Molinarius

The name Mueller is an occupational name for a "miller", derived from the Latin name "Molinarius", which means "worker in the mill". The name is of occupational origin, referring to the mill owner or manager. The Latin name "Molinarius" is a combination of the word "molīna", meaning "mill, grinding mill", and the suffix "-ārius", which is the substantive form of "molīnus", meaning "of or pertaining to a mill". The Latin name "Molinarius" is also related to the word "mola", which means "millstone".

The name Mueller is thought to have originated in Bavaria, Germany, and is the German form of the Latin name "Molinarius". In Old German, the name "Molinarius" was spelled as "Mulinari". As hereditary surnames began to be adopted in Germany in the 12th century, people were often identified by their occupation. The name Mueller is thus an occupational name, indicating that the person with this surname was a miller or worked in a mill.

The name Mueller has various regional variations in German, including "Mueller", "Muller", "Mueler", "Muler", "Miller", "Moeller", "Muellner", "Milner", and "Molner". These variations arose due to the diverse cultural groups present in the German states during the medieval era, as well as the lack of standardized spelling rules at the time.

The name Mueller is the most common surname in Germany, Switzerland, and the French départements of Bas-Rhin and Moselle. It is also the fifth most common surname in Austria. The name has a long history in these regions, with early records of the name appearing in the chronicles of Swabia, where a knight named Conrad von Husen was known as Mueller due to his ownership of a mill.

The name Mueller has also spread to other parts of the world, including the United States, Canada, and Brazil, due to migration and settlement patterns over the centuries. Notable individuals with the surname Mueller include Robert Swan Mueller III, an American politician and former Director of the FBI, and Herta Müller, a Romanian-born German novelist and poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Notable people with the surname Mueller

The surname Mueller is a spelling variant of the German surname Müller, which means "miller" in German. It is the most common surname in Germany, Switzerland, and the French départements of Bas-Rhin and Moselle, and the fifth most common in Austria. Here are some notable people with the surname Mueller:

Academics, scientists, and writers

• Alfred Mueller (born 1939), American theoretical physicist
• Dennis Mueller, professor of economics at the University of Vienna
• Eva Mueller (1920–2006), American professor of economics
• Ferdinand von Mueller (1825–1896), German-Australian botanist
• Fritz Mueller (1907–2001), German engineer who later emigrated to the United States
• George Mueller (NASA) (1918–2015), American engineer and NASA associate administrator
• Gerhard Mueller (engineer) (1835–1918), German-born New Zealand surveyor, engineer, and land commissioner
• Gustav Adolph Mueller (1864–1937), German-American architect, engineer, and sculptor
• Gustav Emil Mueller (1898–1987), Swiss philosopher
• Hans Mueller (physicist) (1900–1965), Swiss-American physicist, inventor of Mueller calculus
• Ivan I. Mueller (1930–2023), Hungarian-American geodesist
• Jean Mueller (born 1950), American astronomer
• Jennifer Mueller, American applied mathematician
• John Mueller (born 1937), American political scientist
• John Howard Mueller (1891–1954), American biochemist, pathologist, and bacteriologist
• Kate Hevner Mueller (1898–1984), American educator
• Steffen Mueller, American virologist and professor
• Tom Mueller, American rocket engineer
• Armin Mueller-Stahl (born 1930), German actor
• Andrew Mueller, Australian-born, London-based journalist and author
• Gene Mueller (born 1942), American historian and author
• Jen Mueller (born 1978), American television and radio sports broadcast journalist
• Lisel Mueller (1924–2020), German-born American poet, translator, and teacher
• Marnie Mueller, American novelist
• Merrill Mueller (1916–1980), American journalist
• P. S. Mueller, American cartoonist and voice actor
• Pamela Bauer Mueller (born 1945), American author

Artists and musicians

• Gussie Mueller (1890–1965), American jazz clarinetist
• Ivan Mueller (1786–1854), Russian clarinetist
• Jeff Mueller, American math-rock vocalist and guitarist
• Jon Mueller (born 1970), American drummer, percussionist, and composer
• Karl Mueller (rock musician) (1963–2005), American rock musician
• Mark Mueller, American songwriter
• Otto-Werner Mueller (1926–2016), German-born conductor in the United States
• Karl Friedrich Müller-Pfalz (1894–1969), German concert pianist and composer
• Stephen Mueller (1947–2011), American painter
• Hermann Carl Mueller (1854–1941), German-born ceramicist in the United States
• Otto Mueller (1874–1930), German Expressionist painter

Politicians and civil servants

• Anne Mueller (1930–2000), British civil servant and academic
• August B. Mueller (1905–1996), American politician and farmer in Minnesota
• Fred A. Mueller (1868–?), American politician in Wisconsin
• Frederick H. Mueller (1893–1976), United States Secretary of Commerce (1959–1961)
• Jacob Mueller (1822–1905), German-born American politician in Ohio
• James Mueller, American politician in Ohio
• James Mueller (mayor), American politician in Indiana
• Kimberly J. Mueller (born 1957), American judge in California
• Mike Mueller (born 1974), American politician in Michigan
• Otto Mueller (politician) (1875–1973), American politician in Wisconsin
• Robert Mueller (born 1944), American lawyer, former Director of the FBI, and author of the Mueller Report
• Ursula Mueller, German foreign affairs figure
• Walter H. Mueller

Frequently asked questions