Origin of Foster Surname

The consensus amongst most books and websites is that the Foster surname probably derived from one of the following four occupational (Metonymic) surnames:

1. The first is a name for a saddle tree maker, a very important occupation seven hundred or more years ago. A saddle tree is a wooden frame around which the saddle is formed with leather. It comes from the Old French "fustier", itself originating from the word "fustre", meaning a block of wood.

2. Secondly, the name may describe a maker or user of "forcetier", which are steel shears widely used in both agriculture and textile production.

3. A third possibility is that Foster is an alternative or dialectal spelling of Forester, a term which described a civil officer in charge of a forest.

4. Lastly the derivation could be from a shortened spelling of the Olde English pre 7th Century compound "cild-fostre", and as such an occupational nickname for a foster parent or possibly a foster child.


For more information visit the Internet Surname Database.
(why not try the search option to find the origin of your own surname)

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Here are some more examples of other names in my family history and what they mean:

Petty ;- derives from the medieval Anglo-Norman French term "petit". It was used as a nickname for a small person, as in Walter le Petiit, to distinguish the younger of two bearers of the same given name.

Appleby ;- is of Norse-Viking origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places named with the Old Norse "apall" meaning apple, plus the Old Norse "-byr", a farm or settlement.

Rutt ;- has two possible origins. Firstly it may be a byname applied to a cheerful person. If so then the origin is the Old English pre 7th century word "rot" meaning glad. Secondly it may be a metonymic occupational name for a musician, one who played the "rote", a medieval stringed instrument.

Burke ;- is topographical, and originates from residence by, or probably the ownership of, a fortress on a hill. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "burh", or the Anglo-Saxon "burg".

Again, for more information visit the Internet Surname Database.  

What’s in a name?

What better way can there be to begin discovering your family history then by looking at the origin and meaning of the very surname that you inherited from your forebears.

So where do surnames come from and what do they mean?

At the start of the Middle Ages, after the Norman Conquest in 1066, most people were living in small farming communities. Everyone knew everyone so having just one name was enough. However as the population grew and people began to travel they had to find a way to distinguish themselves from others with the same first name. As a result people began to attach descriptive terms to each individual in order to set them apart.

The descriptive terms used can be split into 5 main groups.

1. Locative surnames indicate that the first bearer came from a specific place. The surname Lincoln, for example, denotes someone who came from the city of Lincoln.
2. Topographic surnames identify people by geographical features near where they lived, such as Church or Hill.
3. Metonymic (Occupational) surnames tell you what people did – Carpenter, Farmer and so on.
4. Sobriquets (or Nicknames) include surnames such as Black (probably describing hair colour), Cruikshank (bent legs), and Truelove. These nicknames might have been ironic, such as the surname Proud given to someone very shy.
5. Patronymic surnames (and less common ‘matronymics’) use the father’s name (or mother’s name) as the surname. Margesson is a matronymic surname, meaning son of Margery or Margaret, where Johnson is patronymic meaning ‘son of John’. 

What made surnames stick was the introduction of taxation. The taxman was only too pleased to distinguish one from the other when faced with four ‘Richards’ in the same village, each paying their rates and taxes in different amounts.

Once the taxman had made the distinction he would have been loath to change his records so once a surname was recorded in the parish rate list, there it remained for life. Not only that, but when ‘Richard’ died and the responsibility of rate paying moved to his son, the taxman would have simply crossed out Richard and replaced it with his son’s name and left the surname unaltered.

This is the way that surnames relating to one man only became hereditary, passing down to every member of the family.

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Success!..........

I just managed to add the slide show on the left of this blog which I'm quite pleased with.

It links directly to my Flickr account where the pictures are stored. If you click on a particular picture during the slide show it will take you into Flickr where you will (eventually) be able to see a description.

I will add more pictures as well as descriptions for each picture in due course.

Happy New Year! Welcome to my new Foster Family History Blog.

Right it's official, I am now eating wholemeal bread instead of white! So that's the first resolution out of the way now on to the second.

I have been meaning to create a blog dedicated to "My Foster Family History" for some time now, so here goes.

The idea is to share as much as I can on the blog about my Foster Family but in small bite size chunks rather than swamping you all with a deluge of information all at once.

Along with my Dad we have, over the years, collected a sizable amount of information, photo's and memories etc about our family history which we would like to share.

We would also welcome your contribution so please feel free to add any comments or feedback.

In the meantime I have already added some information about my Foster family which can be found via the page tabs at the top of this page.

Thanks

Ian