# Forrester (surname)

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

An occupational or topographic surname originating as an occupation for someone who worked or lived in a forest.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 13,878 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,596 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 22,247 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.5% (13,276 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Forrester 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) | 84% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 11% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.2% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.4% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.5% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Forrester in the United States and Australia.

## People named Forrester

- Jay Wright Forrester, American operations researcher (1918–2016)
- Bill Forrester, American swimmer, Olympic bronze medalist, world champion, former world record-holder
- Jenna Forrester, Australian swimmer
- Rhett Forrester, American musician (1956-1994)
- Brent Forrester, American writer and producer

## Similar surnames

Forster, Forester, Foerster, Forrest, Forsythe, Forsyth, Forest, Forst, Freshwater, Frost, Frausto, Firestone.

## 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.