Find out how popular the last name Pilgrim is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Pilgrim.

Pilgrim, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Pilgrim surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pilgrim in America

Pilgrim is the 5535th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pilgrim surname appeared 6,275 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Pilgrim.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pilgrim to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Pilgrim

The surname Pilgrim originated in England during the Middle Ages. It derives from the Old English word "pil(e)grim," which referred to someone who had been on a pilgrimage, often to religious sites like Canterbury or Rome. The name likely developed as a way to identify individuals who had completed these spiritual journeys.

Many early instances of the name can be found in medieval records and documents. For example, a Robert Pelegrim is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Northamptonshire in 1202. The surname also appears in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, which recorded landowners in various English counties.

One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was John Pilgrim, born around 1350 in Norfolkshire. He was a merchant and landowner who is mentioned in several court records from the late 14th century. Another early bearer was Walter Pylgryme, born circa 1410 in Kent, who served as a messenger for King Henry V.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Pilgrim name continued to spread across England. Notable figures from this period include William Pilgrim (1529-1594), a Protestant martyr from Bedfordshire, and Ralph Pilgrim (1625-1678), a wealthy merchant from Essex.

The name gained particular prominence in the early 17th century with the Pilgrims, a group of English Puritans who sailed to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Several of the Pilgrim settlers, such as William Bradford (1590-1657) and Edward Winslow (1595-1655), bore this surname.

Other notable individuals with the Pilgrim surname over the centuries include Robert Pilgrim (1768-1835), an English engraver and artist, and George Pilgrim (1809-1891), a British naval officer who served in the Crimean War. Sir William Pilgrim (1886-1959) was a British civil servant and diplomat who served as Governor of Hong Kong from 1942 to 1946.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pilgrim

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Pilgrim.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Pilgrim was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Pilgrim has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Pilgrim was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Pilgrim, please contact us.

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