Save Type Surname (from occupation) Usage French, Catalan Pronounced Pron. /mi.lɛ/(French) /mi.jɛ/(French) [key·simplify] Meaning & History metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of millet or panic grass or a topographic name for someone who lived by a field of millet from French and Catalan millet (from Latin milietum a derivative of milium in Old French mil "millet").