Peer
Usually a surname from the French personal name Pierre, the equivalent of Peter.
The #8,773 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 82,641 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest evidence points to Peer as an English surname derived from French Pierre, the French form of Peter. Peter ultimately comes from Greek Petros, meaning "rock" or "stone." In this surname form, Peer is best understood as an Anglicized spelling or pronunciation-based variant of that personal name.
History
19th-century surname writers also treated Peer as a shortened or altered form related to Pierre/Peter. It appears in English records as a name that could be spelled in several ways, and some works also mention possible confusion with locational forms. The surname is relatively uncommon in the United States today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname dictionaries often grouped Peer with a whole cluster of near-spellings built from Pierre/Peter, showing how fluid surname spelling could be before standardization.
From the historical record
“Cp. Pile|. PEER for the French Pierre = Peter, q.v. pIIrIe} = "'«"«■ 1-- PEERSON = Plerson, q.v. PEET " PEETE, Peat(e, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)