MILLAR (also Miller) The great majority of Millars and Millers in Ireland, outside of Dublin, are in Ulster. Taken together, the names are among the forty most common in Ulster and among the fifteen most common in Co. Antrim. Indeed two-thirds of those of the name are in that county. There are also many in Co. Derry. Millar or Miller was noted as a 'principal name' in Co. Antrim in the mid- seventeenth century. The names are of either English or Scottish origin. In England Miller was originally Milner. In the south of England this derived from the Middle English mylne, a 'mill'. But the name was most common in the northern and eastern counties and there it derived from the Old Norse mylnari, a 'miller'. The spelling Millar is Scottish and as a hereditary surname it did not appear until the fifteenth century. As every burgh had its miller the name sprang up independently all over the country. There were also Millars, a sept of Clan MacFarlane. ' In mid-nineteenth-century Co. Antrim the name was found to be, with MacAllister, the most common name in the barony of Kilconway and at the same time a particular concentration was noted on the Ards peninsula.