# Chester (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/chester/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

An English habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 15,066 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,408 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 20,493 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.2% (14,595 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈt͡ʃɛ.stɚ/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Middle English Chestre, from Old English Ċeaster, from ċeaster (“a town or city, especially a Roman one”). The village in Nova Scotia is likely named after the city in Pennsylvania.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Chester in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 66% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 27% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.7% |
| Two or more races | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Chester in the United States and the United Kingdom.

## People named Chester

- James Chester, association football player
- Vanessa Lee Chester, American actress
- Craig Chester, American actor and screenwriter
- George Randolph Chester, American short story writer (1869–1924)
- Nick Chester, British engineer
- Kira Kosarin, American actress and singer-songwriter (born 1997)

## Similar surnames

Chesterman, Castro, Custer, Castor, Castrejon, Castorena, Caster, Coster, Castruita, Casterline, Cacciatore, Custard.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.