Forest Family History
Forest Name Meaning
French: topographic name for someone who lived in or near a royal forest or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper or worker in one from Old French forest ‘forest’; or a habitational name from (La) Forest the name of several places in various parts of France. Unlike modern French forêt forest was not simply a word for extensive woodland but referred specifically to large wooded areas reserved by law for the king and his nobles to hunt in (see also English Forrest ). Compare Deforest and Laforest . English and Scottish: variant of Forrest a cognate of 1 above.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022