I found the book published in 1952/55 by H.R Murray. The game name took two seperate paths - Germanic, Slavic and Eastern European languages adopted the respective forms of Mill and the English and Romance languages the Latin Merrellus meaning 'piece'. In some countries you have both names being used.

In the rest of the world - such as India and China it was often named after the number of pieces i.e 9 or the alignment/capture of 3 pieces.