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The surname Palfrey

An English occupational surname, carried by 360 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex P416

Palfrey: #56,710 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Palfrey #56,710, 360 people Palfrey: #56,710 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#100Jimenez Palfrey #56,710, 360 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Palfrey is more common than 65% of them.

Origin

English origin

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

Palfrey is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 360 people named Palfrey in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 857,626 Americans. That is up 1.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 355.

#56,710
rank among US surnames
360
people in 2010
0.1
per 100,000 Americans
+1.4%
change since 2000 (was #54,385)

Who is named Palfrey

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

83% of people named Palfrey identified as white (not Hispanic), 13% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.2% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 83%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 13%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.2%
The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Asian & Pacific Islander, Multiracial are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Palfreys

2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

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

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Surnames that sound like Palfrey

Palfrey has the Soundex code P416, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code P416.

Other English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Palfrey come from?
Metonymic occupational surname for a man responsible for the maintenance and provision of saddle-horses, from Middle English palfrey.
How common is the surname Palfrey?
360 people in the United States had the surname Palfrey in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 857,626 Americans. It ranked 56,710th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Palfrey?
In the 2010 Census, 83% of people named Palfrey identified as white (not Hispanic), and 13% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Palfrey?
Sarah Palfrey Cooke, American tennis player (1912–1996), followed by John G. Palfrey.
Where is the surname Palfrey most common?
Wikidata records people named Palfrey in the United States.
What type of surname is Palfrey?
Palfrey is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Palfrey getting more or less common?
More common. 355 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 360 in 2010, up 1.4%.
What are other spellings of Palfrey?
Pelfrey and Pelphrey.