Foster
Foster is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 202 births. Its best rank was 280th, in 1896.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 2020.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 2023232 births
- Best rank
- #280in 1896
- Since 1880
- 13,130people given the name
The story in the numbers
12,858 boys have been named Foster in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2023, with 232 births.
This is a comeback. After an early peak the name fell to a fraction of its former share, and it has been climbing again for the past decade.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1954, and the 2010s alone account for 15%. It has spent 89 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 272 girls have also been given it, 2.1% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Foster | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 241 | |
| 1890s | 351 | |
| 1900s | 343 | |
| 1910s | 1,406 | |
| 1920s | 1,644 | |
| 1930s | 1,040 | |
| 1940s | 1,065 | |
| 1950s | 758 | |
| 1960s | 476 | |
| 1970s | 359 | |
| 1980s | 361 | |
| 1990s | 849 | |
| 2000s | 981 | |
| 2010s | 1,894 | |
| 2020s | 1,090 |
In 2023, its biggest year
Foster was the 966th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 2023 were Liam, Noah, Oliver, James and Elijah. See all of 2023.
Names that rose and fell with Foster
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Noblepeak 1920
- Levypeak 2021
- Forestpeak 2022
- Crawfordpeak 1924
- Merrittpeak 1924
- Juliuspeak 1918
- Orenpeak 2021
- Emorypeak 1920
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.