# DeForest (surname)

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

A surname from French, equivalent to English Forest or Woods, equivalent to the modern French surname Deforet.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | French |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 2,707 |
| US rank (2010) | 11,597 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 114,055 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.6% (2,664 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Forest, Deforet, Foret |

## Etymology

Rare French surname, from de (“from”) + forest. Compare Deforrest, Defrees, Defreest.

## Who carries it

Share of people named DeForest 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) | 93% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.0% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named DeForest in the United States.

## People named DeForest

- Lee de Forest, American inventor (1873–1961)
- Calvert DeForest, American comedian
- Charles DeForest Fredricks, American photographer (1823-1894)

## Similar surnames

Depriest, Deforge, Dvorak, Dufresne, Devereaux, Devers, Dabrowski, Deavers, Devereux, Divers.

## 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.