# Salter (surname)

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

A surname originating as an occupation.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 14,641 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,462 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 21,088 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.6% (13,991 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As an English surname, from the noun salter. Sometimes confused with Souter; also compare Saltman. * Also as an English surname, from Middle English sautreour (“player of psaltery”). Compare Rutter. * As a German surname, northern variant of Salzer. * As a French surname, Americanized from Salois.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Salter 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) | 25% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.8% |
| Two or more races | 2.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Salter in the United States and Austria.

## People named Salter

- James Salter, American novelist and short-story writer (1925–2015)
- Susanna M. Salter, American politician and activist (1860–1961)
- Hans J. Salter, American composer (1896-1994)

## Similar surnames

Slater, Slaughter, Slattery, Soltero, Saulter, Showalter, Salters, Schluter, Schlatter, Schlater, Schlueter, Sluder.

## 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.