Find out how popular the last name Vester is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Vester.

Vester, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Vester surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Vester in America

Vester is the 17367th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Vester surname appeared 1,626 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Vester.

We can also compare 2010 data for Vester to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Vester

The surname Vester has its origins in Denmark, where it first appeared in the late 16th century. It is derived from the Old Norse word "vestr," meaning "west" or "westerly." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who lived in the western part of a town or region.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Vester surname can be found in the Danish Census Records of 1645, where a man named Hans Vester is listed as a resident of Copenhagen. The name also appears in various church records and legal documents from this time period.

It is possible that the Vester surname may have been associated with a specific place name in Denmark, such as Vestervig or Vesterå, both of which contain the "vester" element. However, there is no definitive evidence linking the surname directly to any particular location.

In the 18th century, a notable Vester was the Danish painter Johannes Vester, who was born in 1726 and is known for his portraits and landscapes. Another individual of note was the Norwegian writer and poet Henrik Vester, who lived from 1818 to 1884 and authored several books of poetry and short stories.

The Vester surname also found its way to other parts of Scandinavia and Europe. In Sweden, there was a prominent family of architects and builders with the surname Vester, including Carl Vester (1758-1818) and his son Johan Fredrik Vester (1785-1851), who designed several notable buildings in Stockholm.

In the United Kingdom, one notable figure was the English historian and author William Vester, who was born in 1832 and wrote extensively on the history of the British Isles. He is particularly remembered for his work "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire," published in 1875.

While the Vester surname is most commonly associated with Scandinavian countries, it has also been recorded in other parts of Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands, and France, though its origins and historical significance in these regions are less well-documented.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Vester

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Vester.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Vester was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Vester has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Vester was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Vester, please contact us.

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