# Palfrey (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/palfrey/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Middle English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 360 |
| US rank (2010) | 56,710 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 857,626 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.4% (355 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Pelfrey, Pelphrey |

## Etymology

Metonymic occupational surname for a man responsible for the maintenance and provision of saddle-horses, from Middle English palfrey.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Palfrey in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 83% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 13% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.2% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Palfrey in the United States.

## People named Palfrey

- Sarah Palfrey Cooke, American tennis player (1912–1996)
- John G. Palfrey, American clergyman, historian and politician (1796-1881)

## Similar surnames

Pelfrey, Pulver, Philbrick, Philbrook, Playfair.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.