From Old French 'armure' meaning 'armor or weaponry,' originally an occupational name for an armor-maker.
Armor is a name with deep Celtic and geographical roots. It derives most directly from Armorica, the ancient name for the northwestern peninsula of France known today as Brittany — from the Brythonic Celtic ar mor, meaning on the sea or land facing the sea. Armorica was the homeland of the Veneti and other Gaulish peoples, later settled by Britons fleeing Anglo-Saxon expansion in the fifth and sixth centuries, which is why Brittany has maintained Celtic linguistic and cultural connections to Cornwall and Wales.
The name thus carries within it the Atlantic coastline, the gray sea, the standing stones of Carnac. In Welsh and Breton tradition, the Armorican connection is bound up with Arthurian legend — Geoffrey of Monmouth placed the founding of Brittany within the Matter of Britain, and the sea-realm beyond the western horizon held mythological significance as a liminal place between the known world and the otherworld. A name that evokes the sea-facing land carries that mythic weight, however lightly.
Armor also overlaps phonetically with the English word armor — protective covering, martial readiness — giving it a secondary association with strength and defense that is etymologically coincidental but semantically resonant. As a given name, Armor has been used most in Breton-influenced communities and as an expression of Celtic heritage pride. It remains genuinely uncommon as a first name in English-speaking contexts, which gives it an exploratory quality — a name for parents willing to venture past the familiar coastline of conventional choices into something that feels both ancient and entirely fresh.