Name of the Week

Once the obscure brother of Miles, Milo has
now lost its 'Tweenies' association and, with its stylish -o ending,
is ready to take centre stage.

 

Origin:

Milo is an Old Germanic name, brought to Britain by the Normans in the form Miles.  The origin is obscure, but the most favoured source is the Slavic element mil "gracious, dear, beloved" which can be found in several Slavic names such as Milorad, Milomir, Miloslav, Miłogost, Radomil, Radmila and Ludmila. Another possibility is that it was originally a short form of a name containing the Germanic element amal "work, industry," such as Amalric. This dropping of the 'a' can be seen in the shift from Amalsuintha to Millicent so it does have some precedence.  From a completely separate source, Milo was also used in antiquity as the Latin form of the Ancient Greek name Milon, itself derived from milos "yew". It was most famously borne by Milo of Kroton, a renowned wrestler and six-time Olympic victor of the 6th century. Milo is also famous in antiquity for being the Latin name for the Greek island of Milos, which gave its name to the Venus de Milo.

Usage:

The Normans brought Milo to Britain in the 11th century. Milo Crispin, a member of an aristocratic Norman family, was said, along with his brothers, to have been present at the Battle of Hastings and is found in the 1086 Domesday book as a significant landowner. The name appears smattered throughout medieval documents, and Miles was established early as a surname, though it was never very common initially. Milo appears in Latinised records, but most of these men would most likely have been called Miles in the vernacular, and by the 16th century, when fewer records were written in Latin, Miles appears more frequently.  In the name frequency tables from 1538-1700 by Smith-Bannister, Miles ranks in eight decades out of seventeen showing its moderate use: 1580-9: #32; 1590-9: #35; 1610-19: #41; 1620-9: #36 1630-9: #38; 1640-9: #44; 1650-9; #46; 1680-9: #49.  It wasn't until the 18th century that Milo came into use in its own right, possibly inspired by the Ancient Greek name, as Milon was also used. It continued to flag far behind more popular Miles, as we can see from the Birth Index of England and Wales: The Surname Atlas (click to enlarge)  Milo  Miles 1840s: 7 births 1850s: 7 births 1860s: 10 births 1870s: 8 births 1880s: 13 births 1890s: 12 births 1900s: 11 births 1910s: 3 births 1920s: 3 births 1930s: 7 births 1940s: 4 births 1950s: 5 births 1960s: 31 births 1840s: 729 births 1850s: 788 births 1860s: 811 births 1870s: 775 births 1880s: 703 birth 1890s: 538 births 1900s: 458 births 1910s: 320 births 1920s: 257 births 1930s: 234 births 1940s: 344 births 1950s: 546 births 1960s: 1402 births Miles itself ranked #136 in 1860, #154 in 1870 and #174 in 1880 but was out of the top 200 by 1890. Occasionally, Milo was registered for girls in the 19th century, possibly as an adoption of the surname. According to data from the 1881 census, Milo was most common in the South West of England while Miles was more common in the North and East. This, however, does not correspond to areas where the surnames Miles or Milo were used. click to enlarge Milo looked to be waning in usage before 2005 in England and Wales (perhaps because of its association with the children's television show The Tweenies), but since then it has been rising. In 2005, 147 babies were given the name, ranking #238, thought it still ranked below Miles at #179. In 2008, for the first time, six more babies were named Milo than Miles, and since then, Milo has been the more common form. It has been steadily rising since, and in 2014 Milo ranked #146 with 378 births.  Alternative spelling Mylo was for a long time outside the top 1000. Only 5 babies were given the name in 2004, yet that number had more than ten-fold in four years. Mylo ranked #423 (96 births) in 2014 while Miles was #161 (356 births).

Famous Bearers:

History: * Milo of Kroton, 6th century ancient Greek wrestler and Olympic champion. * Milo of Treves (d. 762), Archbishop of Treves and Archbishop of Reims. * Milo Emil Halbheer (1910–1978), German painter. Contemporary: * Milo O'Shea (1926–2013), Irish actor. * Rory Ferreira "Milo" (1992), American hip hop musician. * Milo Moiré (b. 1983), Swiss artist. * Milo Cawthorne (b. 1989) is a New Zealand actor. Literature and Other Media: * Milo Minderbinder, a character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. * Milo Thatch, the main character in the Disney animated films Atlantis: The Lost Empire. * Milo Weener, a character in the BBC children's television programme Tweenies.

Variants:

Mylo, Miles, Myles (English), Milan (Czech, Dutch, Russian, Slavic), Miloš (Slavic)

Pronunciation:

MĪ-lō (UK) [key]

Possible diminutives:

Miles

Sibling Names:

Thea     Esme     Alba     Elsa     Willa     Flora  Elias    Rex     Toby     Jasper    Jude     Rowen

Name Lists:

Vintage Names    Slim Softies    Ripe Renovations    Disney Names

 

If you like Milo you may also like:    Arlo, Monty, Hugo, Levi, Ivo, Luca, Theo, Jonah, Ralph, Niall

 

Thanks to Tabby for requesting this post.