# Tester (surname)

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

A surname from Old French.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | French |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 4,334 |
| US rank (2010) | 7,663 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 71,238 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.3% (4,154 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈtɛstə(ɹ)/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old French testard (“someone with a big head”), a pejorative from teste (“head”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Tester 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) | 95% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.4% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Tester in the United States.

## People named Tester

- Jon Tester, American politician and farmer (born 1956)

## Similar surnames

Testerman, Tschetter.

## 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.