Where the Palmer name comes from

Palmer is an English surname, probably from the Anglo-Norman nickname Palmer or Palmere. That nickname was a variant of the Old French name Palmier or Paulmier, which lives on in the modern French surnames Paulmier and Paumier. Both forms meant "pilgrim".

The sense comes from the palm branch, which was a token of a Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In Middle English, a palmer was a pilgrim from the Holy Land, and the word came from Old French. The surname was transferred from that nickname.