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Surname Etymology and Meaning of PALMER

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

A pilgrim, so called from the palm-branch, which he constantly carried as a pledge of his having been in the Holy Land. "Here is a holy Palmer come, From Salem first, and last from Rome." Scott's Marmion.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857).

1. English: from Middle English, Old French palmer, paumer (from palme, paume ‘palm tree’, Latin palma), a nickname for someone who had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Such pilgrims generally brought back a palm branch as proof that they had actually made the journey, but there was a vigorous trade in false souvenirs, and the term also came to be applied to a cleric who sold indulgences.
2. Swedish (Palmér): ornamental name formed with palm ‘palm tree’ + the suffix -ér, from Latin -erius ‘descendant of’.
3. Irish: when not truly of English origin (see 1 above), a surname adopted by bearers of Gaelic Ó Maolfhoghmhair (see Milford) perhaps because they were from an ecclesiastical family.
4. German: topographic name for someone living among pussy willows (see Palm 2).
5. German: from the personal name Palm (see Palm 3).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)