Palmer
Feminine · Latin roots · “pilgrim”
Palmer is given to both — 9,389 girls and 9,264 boys since 1880. See Palmer as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Palmer began as a word for a pilgrim — specifically one who had walked to the Holy Land and come home carrying a palm frond as proof of the journey. Chaucer names such travelers in the opening lines of The Canterbury Tales, and Shakespeare plays on the word in Romeo and Juliet's "palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." Six centuries later it is a two-syllable American first name, warm at the front and crisp at the close.
How old is the name Palmer?
Palmer first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Palmer is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 9,200 people named Palmer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Palmer most popular?
Palmer peaked in 2025, reaching #232 nationally. Today it ranks #232, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From palma (Latin, "palm") to Palmer
The story of Palmer
In medieval England a palmer was a particular kind of pilgrim: not merely someone who had gone on a journey, but someone back from Jerusalem, identifiable by the palm he brought with him. The word hardened into a byname and then into one of the ordinary English surnames, carried to North America with countless others and settled widely there. Like Parker, Harper and Carter before it, Palmer made the familiar jump from family name to first name — a pattern that has supplied English given names for well over a century. It arrived on the American charts early in the twentieth century and has spent most of its life quiet, with its real climb coming only lately.
Meaning
pilgrim — one who returned from the Holy Land with a palm branch
From Middle English palmere, via Anglo-Norman from Latin palmarius, on palma, "palm." The palm frond was the token a returning pilgrim wore or carried.
How the name formed
- palmaLatin, "palm"
- palmarius
- palmereMiddle English, "pilgrim"
- PalmerEnglish surname
- Palmergiven name
Related forms: Palmieri · Palmeri · Palmero · Palmeiro · Paumier
Pronouncing Palmer
PAHL-mer
Many American speakers drop the l, exactly as in the word palm, giving PAH-mer. Both are standard and no one will correct you.
Nicknames for Palmer
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1908
- Most girls named
- 20251,330 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #232reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +8.7%1,330 in 2025, from 1,224
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Palmer in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Palmieri in Italian — related form
- Palmeri in Italian — related form
- Palmero in Spanish — related form
- Palmeiro in Portuguese — related form
- Paumier in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Georgia.
Palmers among us
people named Palmer are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,208 born in 2025 was named Palmer
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Leticia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Palmer's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leticia climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leticia's path sketches the road Palmer is walking now.
Palmer is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Palmer is headed
Palmer looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 30% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Palmer beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Palmer in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling everyone already knows from the ordinary English surname, so it is written correctly the first time.
- One clear stress pattern and two syllables — easy to say, easy for a small child to learn to write.
- A documented word history running back through Middle English to Latin, with a settled meaning parents can state.
- Works on a form, a name tag or a résumé at any age, having spent centuries as a family name before becoming a first name.
- It is on a real upward climb right now. A child named Palmer today will very likely be the only one in the class, but may well meet others by the time she or he finishes school.
- The spelling goes to both girls and boys, with boys the smaller share. Expect occasional mix-ups on paperwork and forms that guess wrong — nothing worse, but worth knowing in advance.
- Almost nothing shortens from it, so a child who wants a nickname will have to borrow one from a middle name.
- In the US the word is attached to the half-iced-tea, half-lemonade drink named for a famous golfer — a mild, mostly friendly association that some adults will mention.
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What they receive
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Palmer
Feminine · Latin roots · #232 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Palmers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,200 people named Palmer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Palmer in 2025?
- Palmer ranks #232 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,330 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Palmer?
- About 1 in every 1,208 US girls born in 2025 was named Palmer — 1,330 in all.
- Will my child share the name Palmer with classmates?
- Palmer will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Palmer
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maisie#233 · Wren#231 · Rory#230 · Arianna#234 · Andrea#235 · Kiara#229 · Nyla#236 · Mackenzie#228
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Palmer? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Palmer and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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