The form Illman and Ilman is far more common at earlier dates than Hillman, but its gradual change to Hillman can be traced in parish registers in England as described earlier.
In Finland, the USA, Australia and Peru, available records suggest that the numbers of Illman records sometimes predominate over Hillman in some areas and in earlier times (see section 1 “The Name Hillman”).
Tuomas Salste records the frequency of the name in Finland and other countries[1].
The numbers in Finland would seem to remain fairly constant at under 300 and he considers the name to be of Swedish origin. In contrast the numbers for Hillman in Finland are lower at about a quarter of the Illman numbers (Table 1).
Table 1 Numbers of the name Illman & Hillman in Finland
In Finland the locations given are all in the south and mainly in coastal localities. Salste also mentions the occurrence of the name elsewhere:
- Sweden – 25 occurrences in 2015, compared with 543 Hillman.
- USA – 117 occurrences in 2010, compared with 15,448 for Hillman in the year 2000.
- Australia – 166 voters in 2006 bore the name, compared with 808 for Hillman.
He records similar names as being: Ellmen, Hillman, Lillman, Sillman, Tillman, Villman and Willman.
In Britain the name Illman or Ilman occurs at a ratio of 1:13 at the 1911 UK Census compared with Hillman (see the Hillman in the British Isles section). There are almost 200 references to the name Illman in the National Archives, dating from 1547 onwards. (For comparison there are over 1,700 references to the name Hillman). Thirty-eight of the Illman references relate to military in the First World War. Seventy-six records are in Sussex and 12 in neighbouring Surrey. The remaining low numbers relate to Kent, Hampshire, London and Devon (4 instances each). The name Illman would seem to be more confined in the SE area of England than Hillman was in earlier records[2].
The distribution from the 1881 Census indicates this Illman concentration in the SE even after movement towards the cities had started with the industrial revolution and mechanisation of agriculture (Figure 1). There was a further centre in Herefordshire, and low occurrences in Aston, Mansfield and Lincoln further north.
Researching my own family origins in West Sussex, the transition from the name Illman in earlier records to Hillman later can be seen clearly (from Birth, Marriage and Death records). The name Illman in this line is recorded from before 1700, but changes to Hillman by 1775 in Steyning. The Illman name persisted in another branch of the same family at West Grinstead to 1797, but their children born in 1810 onwards were recorded some as Illman and others as Hillman. William Illman, born 1801 had several children from 1827 all recorded as Hillman.
The name Illman persists in the United Kingdom, as well as in Finland and other Scandinavian and west European countries, and in dispersal locations of the family in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This is investigated later under those countries.
Figure 1 The distribution of the name Illman by District in the 1881 Census (British Surname Atlas 2015)
In Australia the Illman family have put their name to a brand of early agricultural machinery – the “Illman Winnower” was at one time clearly a desirable agricultural implement in the early days of mechanisation and is today a collector’s item[3].
Sources:
[1] http://www.tuomas.salste.net/suku/nimi/illman.html
[2] Steve Archer. 2015. British Surname Atlas. www.archersoftware.co.uk
[3] http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Thomas_Illman_%282%29