Foster surname meaning

Foster is commonly understood as a form of Forster or Forester: someone who worked in or managed a forest. That makes it an occupational surname, not simply a modern word for a parent or guardian. Medieval spelling was flexible, so Forster, Forrester, and Foster could overlap in records even when branches later settled on different forms. A separate explanation connects some families with the French word for a maker of scissors. The forest-worker reading remains the best general gloss, but that extra stream is why this page says likely rather than high.