The Mollers Surname in the United States

Until the 12th century, surnames as we know them were not commonly used in Germany. A person was known to his community by his or her first name.   To distinguish between individuals who shared a common first name in a community, a second word would be used to help identify the person.  The second word attached to the person's name would often describe their occupation, appearance, behavior, an event, the name of their father, the name of their farm, or the town where they came from. During the period 1100-1200, population growth and the increasing mobility and migration of the population brought about the adoption of a surnames that could be passed to successive generations of descendents. Legal systems in use in the 1200s, and the need for citizen lists and tax registers also promoted the adoption of surnames. Through the 13th to the 17th centuries, it was not uncommon for a person to adopt a different name. A man might choose to take his mother's surname, his wife's surname if she inherited, or the name of his farm. By 1500 the practise of inherited surnames was well established throughout present day Germany. Around 1600 the written form of German family names was becoming fixed. By 1550 - 1700 most German church parishes started recording births/baptisms, marriages, and deaths.

The earliest surnames were place names, the most common surnames are derived from an occupation. Mollers, Moellers, or Möllers is a regional spelling variation for the occupation of miller. According to "Dictionary of German Names" by Hans Bahlow, the german word mueller is derived from the Latin word molinarius, a person who owns or operates a mill. The frequency of this name is a result of the numerous mills in villages and towns.

The surname Mollers without an umlaut does exist in Germany and is a rare name, with only 12 occurrences in the German telephone directory. As of November 2001 there are 9 occurences in zipcode 52*, 1 in zipcode 50*, 1 in zipcode 51*, and 1 in zipcode 40* (Dusseldorf).

Möllers / Moellers is a farily common Low German name.

make table for Moellers.....
50* (Cologne) =17 or 31?????
51* =2
52* Aachen
53* Bonn
54* Trier

The spelling of German surnames was not standardized until the 19th century. In Germany during the late middle ages, most people, including the nobility, could not read and write. In this era there was no correct spelling of a name. People didn't possess a passport or official document for identification. So the spelling of a surname changed from writer to writer. In early German documents names were spelled phonetically or transcribed at the writer's preference. Many spelling variations for a given surname can be found in Germany and the United States during the 1600s through the 1800s. Frequently the same parish minister would use a different spelling for the family from one entry to the next. And it is not unusual to find a surname with more than one spelling within the same record!

The English and Latin alphabet does not have the German umlaut vowel characters. Thus, in English and Latin character and type sets, an "ä" is alternatively written as "ae", "ö" as "oe", and "ü" as "ue". German immigrants named Müller after arriving in the US, might adopt either the spelling Muller or Mueller. Or in many cases, they anglicized the spelling of their name to Miller.

There are a number of common spelling variations of Müller in Germany, Möller, Müllers and Möllers. The possible spelling variations in English are Muller, Mueller, Mullers, Muellers, Moller, Moeller, Mollers, and Moellers.

Created: November 28, 2001
This document is under constant revision. If you have additional information on the surname Mollers with Rheinland/Pfalz or different roots, please feel free to contact me with your comments, additions, or corrections.