Hester
A surname most often taken from the personal name Esther, rather than from any occupation or place.
The #976 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 8,662 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally understood as a variant spelling of the female given name Esther, especially in English records where spelling was fluid. The given name Esther comes from Hebrew and is traditionally linked with the name of the Persian goddess Ishtar, though the exact deeper history is debated. As a surname, Hester would originally have identified someone as a child or relative of a woman named Hester/Esther, or it may simply have become fixed from the given name itself.
History
Lower explicitly glosses Hester as a spelling of Esther, and later surname collections treat it the same way. The name appears in English records in several regions, and Bardsley notes it as a familiar Devonshire surname, suggesting at least some regional concentration in Britain before wider spread. It is also found in the United States, where it has become moderately common.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Hester was often written as a variant of Esther, it can sometimes look like a surname from a different root even when it is just an old-fashioned spelling of a biblical name.
From the historical record
“of Hassell. HESSELTIA^E. See Hazelden. HESTER. A spelling of Esther. See Female Chiustian^ Names. HETT. A township in Durham. HETTON. Townships in cos. Durham, Northumberland, and York. HEVYBERD. " Heavy-beard." See Beard.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom