# Forest (surname)

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

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | French |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 5,076 |
| US rank (2010) | 6,661 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 60,825 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.4% (5,006 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

French surname, from Old French forest (“forest”). Compare Laforest and Deforest. Also an English and Scottish surname, variant of Forrest and related to the above.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Forest 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) | 28% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.7% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.9% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.3% |
| Two or more races | 2.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Forest in the United States.

## People named Forest

- Michael Forest, actor
- Mark Forest, American actor, bodybuilder and opera singer
- Dan Forest, American politician (born 1967)
- Sue Myrick, American politician

## Similar surnames

Frost, Forrest, Furst, Forst, Fuerst, First, Forrester, Forsythe, Forster, Forsyth, Forester, Foerster.

## 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.