The surname Hollister
A French occupational surname, carried by 5,736 people in the United States.
3 syllables Soundex H423
Origin
French origin
The surname is a feminine derivative of Hollier, itself from Old French holier (“adulterer, lecher”), in this case extended to refer to a female brothel-keeper, (i.e. a madam). The originally feminine occupational suffix -ster has given rise to many such personal names which today might instead be either masculine or ungendered altogether. For example, from masculine dyer, came both formerly feminine variants Dyster and Dexter; from masculine weaver/webber, came the formerly feminine Webster, among others.
Hollister is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.
One of 791 French surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 5,736 people named Hollister in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 53,826 Americans. That is up 2.3% since 2000, when the Census counted 5,608.
Who is named Hollister
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
90% of people named Hollister identified as white (not Hispanic), 4.2% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.1% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 90%
- Black (not Hispanic) 4.2%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.1%
- Two or more races 1.9%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 1.2%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4%
Famous Hollisters
3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Nancy HollisterAmerican politician, born 1949
- Alice HollisterAmerican actress (1886-1973)
- Ned HollisterAmerican zoologist and botanical collector (1876 – 1924)
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Hollister has the Soundex code H423, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code H423.
Other French surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Hollister come from?
- The surname is a feminine derivative of Hollier, itself from Old French holier (“adulterer, lecher”), in this case extended to refer to a female brothel-keeper, (i.e. a madam). The originally feminine occupational suffix -ster has given rise to many such personal names which today might instead be…
- How common is the surname Hollister?
- 5,736 people in the United States had the surname Hollister in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 53,826 Americans. It ranked 5,992nd of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Hollister?
- In the 2010 Census, 90% of people named Hollister identified as white (not Hispanic), and 4.2% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Hollister?
- Nancy Hollister, American politician, followed by Alice Hollister.
- Where is the surname Hollister most common?
- Wikidata records people named Hollister in the United States.
- What type of surname is Hollister?
- Hollister is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
- Is the surname Hollister getting more or less common?
- More common. 5,608 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 5,736 in 2010, up 2.3%.