First found in Southern Germany, where they were established in the Middle Ages.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Jacob Mueller, who emigrated to America with his wife and five children in 1709, Hans Lendert Miller, who settled in Philadelphia in 1728, as did Heinrich Miller in 1740 and Adam Miller in 1754, Anna Maria Miller, who settled in Georgia during the mid-18th century, Johann Willhelm Muller, who immigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1751, Jacob Friederich Muller, who was naturalized in Pennsylvania in 1805, Michael Muller, who sailed from Bremen to New York with his family in 1853, and August Muller, who arrived in Baltimore in 1872