# Origin of the name Milhouse
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 8, 2005, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097 "2005-08-08T10:11:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MrJimsus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJimsus)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2005, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097/1 "2005-08-08T10:11:42Z")
What is the origin of the name Milhouse? As far as I can tell there are two known Milhouse’s. Richard Milhouse Nixon and Milhouse Van Houten from The Simpsons. Matt Groening has said that this character is named after Nixon. So did Nixon’s parents make up the name? Thanks
Mr.Jimsus
---
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2005, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097/2 "2005-08-08T10:32:29Z")
The ex-president spelled it Milhous, and [it was his mother’s maiden name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon):
> [@](#):
>
> Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California on January 9, 1913, to Francis Nixon and Hannah Milhous, who was descended from a German family originally called Milhausen.
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2005, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097/3 "2005-08-08T10:39:36Z")
His mother’s maiden name was Hannah Milhous.
---
### Author:  [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097/4 "2005-08-08T16:27:07Z")
How many kids have been named Milhouse, since1952?
---
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097/5 "2005-08-08T16:43:50Z")
> [@RM Mentock](#):
>
> How many kids have been named Milhouse, since1952?
If there are any, they are still alive. The [Social Security Death Index](http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/?o_xid=0028727949&o_lid=0028727949&o_xt=26656834) list only one Milhous (no Milhous **e** s) that has ever been reported for a death benefit, and he was born in 1927.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097/6 "2005-08-08T16:51:55Z")
If the OP is asking where the name comes from, it derives from Mill House. There are any number of people with the last name of Milhouse in the US. As a given name…well, those above have covered it well.
---
### Author:  [@sweet\_sue\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweet_sue_1)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-name-milhouse/316097/7 "2005-08-08T20:35:50Z")
There is a town in the Alsace named Mulhouse (in French). It was a center for French Protestantism which was Calvinistic. Richard Nixon’s mother, Hanna Milhous Nixon, was a Quaker whose family was from Pennsylvania, then Ohio. They might well have originated in Mulhouse.
According to the German Wikinpedia, the original German name for the Milhous family was “Milhausen”. The German name for the town of Mulhouse is “Mulhausen”. At the time of emmigration, German would have been a common language in the Alsace.
There is also a commune Mulhausen, Bas-Rhin, near Strasbourg.
> [@MrJimsus](#):
>
> What is the origin of the name Milhouse? As far as I can tell there are two known Milhouse’s. Richard Milhouse Nixon and Milhouse Van Houten from The Simpsons. Matt Groening has said that this character is named after Nixon. So did Nixon’s parents make up the name? Thanks
>
> Mr.Jimsus