Mills
Mills is given to both girls and boys: 15 girls and 46 boys were given it in 2025 (#7,380 among girls’ names and #2,782 among boys’, #4,935 among all names counting both); 1,045 Americans have been recorded with it since 1882 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mills by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mills mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Mills is “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From mills, in reference to mill owners and mill workers.
/mɪlz/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mills?
#2,782 among boys’ names, 2025
Mills rose from #5,902 in 2015 to #2,782 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 7.8 to 26.9 per million.
61 babies in 2025, the peak
Mills peaked in 2025, when 61 babies were given it (46 boys, #2,782 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 43 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 15 | #7,380 | 46 | #2,782 |
| 2024 | 15 | #7,480 | 43 | #2,943 |
| 2023 | 19 | #6,327 | 34 | #3,459 |
| 2022 | 21 | #5,908 | 24 | #4,390 |
| 2021 | 6 | #14,688 | 36 | #3,277 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,548 | 29 | #3,698 |
| 2019 | 8 | #12,079 | 23 | #4,426 |
| 2018 | 11 | #9,612 | 30 | #3,671 |
| 2017 | 5 | #17,603 | 24 | #4,293 |
| 2016 | under 5 | 22 | #4,576 |
Every recorded year (81)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 9 | #11,552 | 15 | #5,902 |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,905 | 10 | #7,939 |
| 2013 | 5 | #18,403 | 14 | #6,132 |
| 2012 | under 5 | 20 | #4,802 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 7 | #10,390 | |
| 2010 | under 5 | 8 | #9,373 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 10 | #8,099 | |
| 2008 | under 5 | 9 | #8,775 | |
| 2007 | under 5 | 8 | #9,457 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 10 | #7,812 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 5 | #12,707 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 8 | #8,660 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 5 | #12,119 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 9 | #7,440 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 9 | #7,307 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 14 | #5,220 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 7 | #8,422 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 6 | #9,238 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 8 | #7,051 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 8 | #6,904 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 5 | #9,354 | |
| 1989 | under 5 | 8 | #6,026 | |
| 1986 | under 5 | 5 | #7,448 | |
| 1982 | under 5 | 11 | #3,863 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 5 | #4,801 | |
| 1959 | under 5 | 8 | #3,195 | |
| 1958 | under 5 | 5 | #4,321 | |
| 1954 | under 5 | 5 | #4,180 | |
| 1952 | under 5 | 8 | #3,023 | |
| 1951 | under 5 | 5 | #4,076 | |
| 1950 | under 5 | 8 | #2,947 | |
| 1948 | under 5 | 7 | #3,215 | |
| 1947 | under 5 | 6 | #3,627 | |
| 1946 | under 5 | 7 | #3,091 | |
| 1945 | under 5 | 8 | #2,693 | |
| 1944 | under 5 | 9 | #2,576 | |
| 1943 | under 5 | 10 | #2,506 | |
| 1942 | under 5 | 5 | #3,906 | |
| 1941 | under 5 | 7 | #3,047 | |
| 1940 | under 5 | 7 | #3,040 | |
| 1938 | under 5 | 7 | #3,069 | |
| 1937 | under 5 | 14 | #1,966 | |
| 1936 | under 5 | 9 | #2,566 | |
| 1935 | under 5 | 10 | #2,488 | |
| 1933 | under 5 | 8 | #2,915 | |
| 1932 | under 5 | 7 | #3,275 | |
| 1931 | under 5 | 5 | #4,144 | |
| 1930 | under 5 | 5 | #4,364 | |
| 1929 | under 5 | 14 | #2,161 | |
| 1928 | under 5 | 11 | #2,599 | |
| 1927 | under 5 | 7 | #3,682 | |
| 1926 | under 5 | 6 | #4,040 | |
| 1925 | under 5 | 12 | #2,543 | |
| 1924 | under 5 | 12 | #2,578 | |
| 1923 | under 5 | 8 | #3,359 | |
| 1922 | under 5 | 14 | #2,308 | |
| 1921 | under 5 | 5 | #4,762 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 14 | #2,301 | |
| 1919 | under 5 | 10 | #2,805 | |
| 1918 | under 5 | 11 | #2,649 | |
| 1917 | under 5 | 11 | #2,516 | |
| 1916 | under 5 | 13 | #2,224 | |
| 1915 | under 5 | 7 | #3,279 | |
| 1914 | under 5 | 11 | #2,061 | |
| 1913 | under 5 | 11 | #1,768 | |
| 1912 | under 5 | 6 | #2,462 | |
| 1900 | under 5 | 6 | #1,265 | |
| 1896 | under 5 | 5 | #1,213 | |
| 1886 | under 5 | 6 | #927 | |
| 1885 | under 5 | 6 | #899 | |
| 1882 | under 5 | 8 | #738 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Mills a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,045 Americans recorded as Mills, 12% are girls and 88% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Mills: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mills, and how old are they?
An estimated 714 Americans named Mills and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (68% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 20. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 703 people named Mills (143 women and girls, 560 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 461 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 190,116 babies since 1880, Mills is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 61 of their 9,690 babies (<1%), again the third most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
More about Mills and names like it
- Compare Mills and MilesBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMills peaked in 2025.
- South Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mills since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Mills: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Mills.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Mills alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.