This version is generally considered to be German in origin, but almost certainly related to the name Hillman, with probably similar origins.
Many of the immigrants to the USA arrived from Germany and eastern Europe, including some with the name Hillmann. It is evident that often this was changed, either by the immigrants themselves or by immigration officials, removing the final “n”. As the result many USA Hillmans look to Britain for their origins when they may in fact need to look to Germany or Russia.
The Dictionary of American Family Names[1] suggests that the name originates from an “elaborated form of the personal name Hille” – itself a reduced form of Hildebrand – plus Mann – meaning man. This suggests an origin for Hillmann that is unique from other explanations for Hillman. However, it is a fact that in both the UK and USA the name Hillmann has been “Anglicised” to Hillman, so adding to the several plausible origins for the name.
Forty four (60%) out of 73 passengers with names similar to Hillman from Hamburg to the USA in 1890-94 were recorded at departure with the surname Hillmann. Hillman on the other hand was only 4% of the total[2].
Early immigrant records to the USA[3] (1635-1903) indicate that of 70 Hillman immigrants recorded, 42 were Hillmann from Germany, while only 19 were Hillman from Britain.
Castle Garden Hillman immigrants recorded at the New York Battery[4] between 1830-1912 numbered 609. Of these 409 (67%) were recorded as Hillmann, but only 156 (25%) as Hillman. In this record 385 (63%) were from Germany (including “Prussia”), 76 (12%) from Britain, and 50 (8%) from Russia. The name Hillmann was mainly from Germany, Prussia and Russia, while Hillman came from Britain, Germany and Ireland.
The record exists for 880 people with the name Hillman or a variant arriving at Ellis Island as immigrants to the USA between 1892-1924[5].
The spellings of the name recorded include both Hillman and Illman variants (Table 1).
Table 1 Hillman & variants recorded at Ellis Island
The people arrived from a wide variety of countries, giving further information on the location of the name at that time (Table 2). The name Hillman mainly came from the UK with few from Germany.
- The name Hillmann came from Germany with only a few Hillman.
- Sweden provided 11 Hillmans but no Hillmann.
- Russia was also the source for a significant number of Hillmann.
Table 2 The countries of origin for Hillmans arriving at Ellis Island
Hillmann occurs in the British Census[6] (Table 3). It is not clear why the numbers fluctuate as they do. It is most likely that there were periodic influxes of new immigrants from Germany, and that over time some of these – or the census enumerators, recorded the name as the “Anglicised” Hillman. Equally, they may have been temporarily in the UK at the time of the census event.
For example, the three people recorded with the surname in 1841 are not included in the four at the 1851 Census, as deduced from their forenames and census locations. The 1841 people were recorded in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire, whereas in 1851 they were a family and a single man all living in Sussex.
Table 3 Hillmann numbers recorded in the UK Census
Sources:
[1] Hanks, Patrick (Ed). 2003. The Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press.
[2] http://www.hamburg.de/ltyr/Ergebnisliste/en/1,3817,,00.html
[3] 1635-1903. Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. https://www.immigrantships.net/
[4] http://www.castlegarden.org/about.html
[5] https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3AHillmann&collection_id=1368704
[6] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/categories/ukicen/