Hill: A Surname History

Description

Hill: A Surname History — Volume 43 of The Surname Histories Series. The hill name — the English topographic name for someone who lived on or by a hill, from Middle English hill/hell/hull (Old English hyll) — “very common among African Americans”; with the rarer streams in the flow: the medieval personal name Hille (a pet form of Hilger or Hillary, or short of the hild-“battle” Germanic names), the German short form of Hildebrand, the Americanized Finnish Mäki (“hill”), Americanized like-sounding Jewish surnames, and the Ulster O’Boyle (O’Baoghail), anglicized Hill in the north-west districts — most Irish Hills are English planter stock. Earliest records: Gilbert del Hil in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk, 1191 (the standard earliest citation); Rogerus filius Hille, Devon, 1221; William attehil, Cambridgeshire, 1260; William de la Hyll, Mydilham, Scotland, 1271. HILL stands No. 39 in the 2010 U.S. Census with 434,827 bearers — up from No. 41 in 2000 (411,770), a +5.6% rise (+23,057 bearers), climbing two ranks — composition (official 2010 Census surname table): 64.36% White, 29.12% Black, 0.53% Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 0.97% American Indian/Alaska Native, 2.51% two or more races, 2.51% Hispanic — sitting directly behind Nguyen at #38 and completing the series’ nineteen-book running echo (Lee #21 → Pérez #22 → Thompson #23 → White #24 → Harris #25 → Sánchez #26 → Clark #27 → Ramírez #28 → Lewis #29 → Robinson #30 → Walker #31 → Young #32 → Allen #33 → King #34 → Wright #35 → Scott #36 → Torres #37 → Nguyen #38 → Hill #39), nineteen consecutive volumes at nineteen consecutive ranks. The signature story is James J. Hill (1838–1916) — “The Empire Builder” — the railroad magnate who built the Great Northern Railway from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest — told in full and framed honestly. The heraldry is framed honestly too: Burke’s General Armory lists dozens of distinct Hill arms, so no single coat of arms belongs to the surname — the book features the documented Hill of Hawkestone arms (Ermine, on a fess sable a tower triple-towered argent; crest, a tower argent surmounted by a garland of laurel; motto Avancez, “Advance”) — the arms of Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill of Almaraz (1772–1842), Wellington’s most trusted Peninsular subordinate, present at Waterloo, later Commander-in-Chief — the 1484 Lord Mayor of London’s arms (the oldest documented Hill arms, the one the crest-shops mislabel “the Hill crest”), the Marquess of Downshire’s, Heligan’s saltire vair, Taunton’s garbs — and the blank honest shield. The bearers — Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich), A.P. Hill, Benny Hill — are honored in prose. Discover the story behind your name!