Foster

surname · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Foster is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 87th most common surname. Recorded meaning: (i) different form of Forster; (ii) perhaps an anglicization of a Jewish Forster-type name; (iii) medieval nickname for a foster-child.

rarermore common
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 1.1K(inferred from the name graph)
  • NZNew Zealand≈1 in 1.1K
  • AUAustralia≈1 in 1.4K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

United States (measured from records)

227,764 people, 2010

#382 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

Sources
561 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 713 (inferred from the name graph)

North Korea, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

(i) different form of Forster; (ii) perhaps an anglicization of a Jewish Forster-type name; (iii) medieval nickname for a foster-child

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Foster counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Foster is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States#87227,7641 in 1.5K228KFoster561
GB United Kingdom#71≈61,000 est.≈1 in 1.1KlistedFoster333
KP North Korea#67≈36,000 est.≈1 in 713—Foster4
CA Canada#81≈26,000 est.≈1 in 1.5K3Foster280
EG Egypt—≈23,000 est.≈1 in 4.5K—Foster23
AU Australia#99≈18,000 est.≈1 in 1.4K1Foster259
NZ New Zealand#60≈4,600 est.≈1 in 1.1K—Foster143
IS Iceland#196≈270 est.≈1 in 1.3K1Foster8

227,764 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Foster is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, France, Brazil, Argentina

    Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

    Also written Föster, Fòster, Föstêr, Fostër, Fóster

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Föster

  • Polish surname15 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Poland, United Kingdom, Czechia

    Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

    Also written Фостер, Föster

  • Hindi surname13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Sinhala

    Also written Fuster, Phoster, Föster, Fostar, ফসটার

  • Greek surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

    Also written Φοστερ

66 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Foster is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In English, from OFr forcetier ‘maker of scissors, shearer, cutler’; first attested Richard le Forseter, le Forceter 1311 ColchCt

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

  • In English, may be ME foster 'foster-parent, nurse', or from Forester/Forster; first attested John Foster 1373 ColchCt

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

  • Transferred use of the surname, an occupational name with at least four possible derivations: from Middle English foster ‘foster parent’, for(e)ster ‘forester’, fors(e)ter ‘shearer’, or fu(y)ster ‘saddle-tree maker’.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

  • In English, Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • English: transferred use of the surname, originally an occupational name with at least four possible derivations—from Middle English foster foster-parent, for(e)ster forester, fors(e)ter shearer, or fu(y)ster saddle-tree maker.

    as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Stephen Foster, b. 1826Florence Foster Jenkins, b. 1868Norman Foster, b. 1903Gloria Foster, b. 1933Norman Foster, b. 1935Alan Dean Foster, b. 1946David Foster, b. 1949Jodie Foster, b. 1962Arlene Foster, b. 1970Ben Foster, b. 1980

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 67 sources across 41 countries.

Official registers attesting Foster
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010228K#99
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000221K#87
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020219K#104

Reference works 7

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Foster mean, and where does it come from?
(i) different form of Forster; (ii) perhaps an anglicization of a Jewish Forster-type name; (iii) medieval nickname for a foster-child Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
In which country does Foster have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 228 thousand people named Foster, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled foster.
How common is the name Foster?
In the United States, the national register counted 227,764 people named Foster in 2010, about 1 in 1.5 thousand residents.
How common is Foster compared with other names?
In the United States, Foster is the 87th most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Foster?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/foster

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Foster” — the 87th most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Foster parses inside a full name →