Guest
An old nickname or byname meaning “guest” or “stranger,” later fixed as a surname.
The #3,737 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,558 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Guest is generally taken from Old English gest, meaning “guest” or “stranger,” used as a nickname or descriptive byname. Some early writers also connected it with an old personal name and with medieval spellings such as Gest or Gist. The basic sense is straightforward: someone known as the guest, newcomer, or stranger.
History
Historical surname dictionaries record Guest and the spelling Gest very early in English records, including Domesday-era and later medieval forms. The name appears in English and also in Scottish usage, which helped it spread and settle into modern surname form. A few authors suggested alternative explanations, including a locative origin, but the nickname sense is the most widely repeated.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books note that Guess is sometimes treated as a spelling change of Guest rather than a separate name.
From the historical record
“GUESS. A corruption of Guest. GUEST. Gest, an A-Sax. name occur- ring in Domesd. and before, and signifying GUESTLIXG. A parish in Sussex. GUILLB. See under ]\ [auger. Tlie Jersey family sent some branches to Eng- land, wliere they altered the orthography to Gill. GUILLTAM. See William.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom