Family name origins & meanings
- English : metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of costards (Anglo-Norman French, from coste ‘rib’), a variety of large apples, so called for their prominent ribs. In some cases, it may have been a nickname (from the same word) for a person with an apple-shaped (i.e. round) head.
- Dutch : status name for a churchwarden, from Late Latin custor ‘guard’, ‘warden’.
- Variant spelling of German Koster.
- This name is recorded in Beverwijck in New Netherland (Albany, NY) in the mid 17th century.