This name derives from the Anglo-Norman-French "moulin" or "molinier" and was originally given either as a topographic name to one who dwelled by a mill or as an occupational name to a miller. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century, (see below). Toponymic formed by the addition of -er to some topographic feature were common from the late 13th Century. The "er" meant "dweller at". When attached to an occupational name "er" is an agent suffix. In the 17th Century an intrusive "q" was introduced to make for easier pronunciation - Francis Mullenger (1674, "The Hearth Tax Returns of Suffolk"). On March 31st 1782 John Mullenger was christened in St. Martin in the Fields Westminster. In the modern idiom, the name is spelt Mullin(d)er, Mullinar, Mullinger and Mullenger. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Sancheus Moliner, which was dated 1275 "The Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire", during the reign of King Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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