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The surname Lister

An occupational surname, carried by 8,350 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈlɪstɚ/ 2 syllables Soundex L236

Lister: #4,250 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Lister #4,250, 8,350 people Lister: #4,250 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Lister #4,250, 8,350 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Lister is more common than 97.4% of them.

Origin

English occupational surname from the archaic noun litster (“dyer”).

Lister 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 8,350 people named Lister in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 36,976 Americans. That is up 5.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 7,891.

#4,250
rank among US surnames
8,350
people in 2010
2.8
per 100,000 Americans
+5.8%
change since 2000 (was #4,158)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#4,241Nemeth8,36236,922
#4,242Wingate8,35936,936
#4,245Hennessey8,35736,945
#4,246Cochrane8,35536,953
#4,247Damron8,35436,958
#4,248Williford8,35236,967
#4,249Lovejoy8,35136,971

Who is named Lister

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

79% of people named Lister identified as white (not Hispanic), 15% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 79%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 15%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.3%
  • Two or more races 1.6%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 1.3%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.4%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Listers

8 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Tommy Lister Jr.
    American actor and wrestler (1958–2020)
  • Moira Lister
    Actress (1923-2007)
  • Zoe Lister-Jones
    American actress, screenwriter and director, born 1982
  • Francis Lister
    British actor (1899-1951)
  • Alton Lister
    American basketball player (born 1958)
  • Ernest Lister
    American politician (1870-1919)
  • Joseph Jackson Lister
    British biologist (1857-1927)
  • Dean Lister
    American martial artist, born 1976

Notable Listers come mostly from the United States (5), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (2) and South Africa (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

  • Lyster

Surnames that sound like Lister

Lister has the Soundex code L236, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code L236.

Questions

Where does the surname Lister come from?
English occupational surname from the archaic noun litster (“dyer”).
How common is the surname Lister?
8,350 people in the United States had the surname Lister in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 36,976 Americans. It ranked 4,250th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Lister?
In the 2010 Census, 79% of people named Lister identified as white (not Hispanic), and 15% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Lister?
Tommy Lister Jr., American actor and wrestler (1958–2020), followed by Moira Lister.
Where is the surname Lister most common?
Wikidata records people named Lister in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and South Africa.
How do you pronounce Lister?
Lister is /ˈlɪstɚ/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Lister?
Lister is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Lister getting more or less common?
More common. 7,891 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,350 in 2010, up 5.8%.
What are other spellings of Lister?
Lyster.