Dating the origins of the Men of Hithlum is difficult. Malach Aradan was apparently the first of the Edain to travel to the land and, while we know that he served the Elves there for fourteen years, we are not told which fourteen years those were. It seems reasonable to assume that Malach was relatively young when he went into the service of Fingolfin (dating the event to very approximately I 330), but we have no real evidence for an exact date.

Malach's great-grandson Hador would later establish himself as the Lord of Dor-lómin, ruling the Edain who had settled the land. Again, we have no definite date for this, but circumstantial evidence would point to a date of about I 419 (see the entry for Lord of Dor-lómin for more discussion on this point). If these approximations are close to correct, then there would have been Men in Hithlum for a period of (very approximately) ninety years before the Eldar appointed Hador as the first formal Lord of Dor-lómin.

The Men of Dor-lómin were those of the Edain who dwelt in the land of Dor-lómin under the lordship of the House of Hador. In practice, the terms 'Men of Hithlum' and 'Men of the North' are used interchangeably to describe these same people, but strictly speaking there were some slight differences. In particular, as noted above, there had been Men in Hithlum from the time of Malach Aradan, some decades before Dor-lómin was formally settled. So, to be absolutely precise, the term 'Men of Hithlum' would also include these earlier Men, and would therefore have a slightly broader definition than that of the 'Men of Dor-lómin'.