# Foster (surname)

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

An English surname originating as an occupation, variant of Forster.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 227,764 |
| US rank (2010) | 99 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 1,356 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.0% (221,040 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

English surname, reduced from Forster; also from the noun foster.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Foster 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) | 70% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 24% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.6% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.9% |
| Two or more races | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Foster in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil.

## People named Foster

- Jodie Foster, American actress and filmmaker (born 1962)
- Norman Foster, British architect (born 1935)
- Ben Foster, American actor
- Florence Foster Jenkins, American soprano, renowned for her lack of musical skill and singing ability (1868–1944)
- Stephen Foster, American songwriter (1826-1864)
- Meg Foster, American actress
- John Watson Foster, American lawyer, politician and diplomat (1836-1917)
- Sara Michael Foster, American actress
- Sutton Foster, American actress
- Scott Michael Foster, American actor (born 1985)
- Alan Dean Foster, American fiction writer
- Greg Foster, American hurdler (1958–2023)

and 62 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Feaster, Fister, Fichter, Factor.

## 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.