How common is the surname Foster?

227,764 people in the United States had the surname Foster in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 1,356 Americans. It ranked 99th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Foster?

Jodie Foster, American actress and filmmaker (born 1962), followed by Norman Foster.

Where is the surname Foster most common?

Wikidata records people named Foster in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom and 2 other countries.

Is the surname Foster getting more or less common?

More common. 221,040 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 227,764 in 2010, up 3.0%.

Is Foster also a first name?

Yes. Foster is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Foster

An occupational surname, the 99th most common in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex F236 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Foster is more common than 99.9% of them.

Origin

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

Foster is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 227,764 people named Foster in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 1,356 Americans. That is up 3.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 221,040.

#99

rank among US surnames

227,764

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

+3%

change since 2000 (was #87)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#90	Hughes	236,271	1,307
#91	Price	235,251	1,312
#92	Alvarez	233,983	1,320
#93	Castillo	230,420	1,340
#94	Sanders	230,374	1,340
#95	Patel	229,973	1,343
#96	Myers	229,895	1,343

Who is named Foster

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

70% of people named Foster identified as white (not Hispanic), 24% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 70%
Black (not Hispanic) 24%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
Two or more races 2.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.9%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Fosters

74 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Jodie Foster
American actress and filmmaker (born 1962)
Norman Foster
British architect (born 1935)
Ben Foster
American actor, born 1980
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, born 1948
John Watson Foster
American lawyer, politician and diplomat (1836-1917)
Sara Michael Foster
American actress, born 1981
Sutton Foster
American actress, born 1975
Scott Michael Foster
American actor (born 1985)
Alan Dean Foster
American fiction writer, born 1946
Greg Foster
American hurdler (1958–2023)

Notable Fosters come mostly from the United States (65), Australia (4) and the United Kingdom (3).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Foster

Foster has the Soundex code F236, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code F236.

Questions

Where does the surname Foster come from?: English surname, reduced from Forster; also from the noun foster.
How common is the surname Foster?: 227,764 people in the United States had the surname Foster in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 1,356 Americans. It ranked 99th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Foster?: In the 2010 Census, 70% of people named Foster identified as white (not Hispanic), and 24% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Foster?: Jodie Foster, American actress and filmmaker (born 1962), followed by Norman Foster.
Where is the surname Foster most common?: Wikidata records people named Foster in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom and 2 other countries.
What type of surname is Foster?: Foster is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Foster getting more or less common?: More common. 221,040 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 227,764 in 2010, up 3.0%.
Is Foster also a first name?: Yes. Foster is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.