The Millikan Family
"The earliest emigrants of the family known to have settled in the American colonies were James Mullikin and Patrick Mullikin, evidently brothers, who came with Lord Baltimore and sat down on lands in Maryland, as the Dorchester county records prove, in 1654. This family, as well as their kindred in Virginia and South Carolina, have spelled the name "Mullikin". A branch of the Scottish family settled in Boston, Massaschutes as early as 1680, have since spelled the name "Mulliken"; while some of their kindred removing to Maine, have almost always used the form "Milliken".
The family from Castledawson, Ireland, early planted in Washington, Mass., and in Middleton, N.H., spelled their names "Millikan" and "Milliken" but the latter was adopted only by the New Hampshire branches. Families descended from William Millikan, a Quaker, who removed from Chester County, Pa., to Randolph Co., N.C. in 1758, have nearly all followed their ancestors form of "Millikan".
The changes of this, like all surnames, are easily accounted for as the cadets of the family passed from one country to another and, consequently, their names from one language to another. This family designation may be traced, with its possessors, from its original Saxon and Norman forms of Millingas and Millanges through all of its mutations in France, England, Scotland, Ireland and the American and British Colonies, to its present varied forms of orthography; and the conspicuous and stereotyped characteristics of the numerous branches of the family bear witness to the unmistakable relationship between them".
History of the Families Millingas and Millanges," by Rev. G. T. Ridlon, 1907