The Unix toolkit was created in the 1970s and is a mainstay to this
day. Miller is written in plain C, and its look and feel adheres closely to
the classic toolkit
style: if this were music, Miller would be a tribute album.
Likewise, since commands are subcommands of the mlr
executable,
the result is a band, if you will, of command-line tools. Put these
together and the namesake is another classic product of the 1970s: the Steve Miller
Band.
(Additionally, and far more prosaically ... just as a miller is someone who grinds and mixes grain into flour to extend its usefulness, Miller grinds and mixes data for you.)