Pilgrim
An occupational or descriptive surname for a pilgrim—someone who traveled to a holy shrine or lived like a religious traveler.
The #5,535 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,202 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname comes from Middle English pilgryme/pilgrim, borrowed from Old French pelegrin, ultimately from Latin peregrinus, meaning “foreign” or “traveler.” In medieval use, a pilgrim was a person who made a journey to a holy place, so the name could be applied as a nickname or descriptive byname. The older sources also connect it with the idea of someone habitually making such journeys.
History
Pilgrim was established as a medieval English byname and later became a hereditary surname. It is especially familiar in English and American history because of the Pilgrim Fathers, though the surname itself is older than that association. Variants such as Pilgrym and Pilegrim appear in historical records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The word behind Pilgrim is the same Latin root that also produced words like “peregrine” and “peregrinate,” both linked to travel.
From the historical record
“Cp. Peel(e. PILGRAMl(A.-Fr.-Lat. ). Pilgrim [O.Fr. PILGRIM i pelegrin; Lut. peregrin-us, a stran- ger] The modern French form, PUerin (also meaning a hypocrite), is found in our Huhdred-RoUs. ' PILKINGTON (Eng.) Bel. to Pilkington , (L^ncs), A.H. 1212 PilMntoii, i2ifi Pilkiiig- ton, 1319 Pylkyngton; A.-Sax.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)