Palmer

At the 2020 census, 151,165 Americans bore the surname Palmer — 176th out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 1,977.

By the numbers

People: 151,165
Rank: 176th
How common: 1 in 1,977
Per 100,000: 50.6

Where the name comes from

Origin a nickname

From Middle English palmer (“a pilgrim from the Holy Land”), from Old French.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Palmer described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 71.9%
Black, not Hispanic 18.5%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.2%
Hispanic or Latino 4.0%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Palmer

Cole Palmer (born 2002)English footballer
Keke Palmer (born 1993)American actress
Teresa Palmer (born 1986)Australian actress, model, writer and producer
Arnold Palmer (1929–2016)American golfer
Lilli Palmer (1914–1986)German actress
Amanda Palmer (born 1976)American musician and songwriter
Jolyon Palmer (born 1991)British racing driver
Robert Palmer (1949–2003)English musician

People named Palmer with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Palmer

Also a first name

Palmer has been given to 18,653 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2025. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.