Hester

Part of speech: noun, proper noun

Definitions

1. A female given name historically used in English-speaking countries; a character name in classic literature and popular culture; sometimes adopted as a surname
2. A personal name primarily for women, appearing in various literary works and genealogies; associated with fictional and historical figures; occasionally used as a last name
3. A common female first name with roots in Western naming traditions; notable for its presence in novels and plays; can also function as a family name in some contexts

Etymology: Hester is a name with two unrelated ancestries that happen to have landed on the same spelling. The first is the Latin form of Esther, the Hebrew biblical queen whose name in English was often rendered in its Latin shape, Hester, which carried the name into English use. The second is a completely different word: Middle Low German "hêster" meant "beech," the tree, and the same root gave a name for people who lived near beech trees. Readers who meet the name in a novel are therefore encountering a biblical name and a tree name that share a spelling by coincidence. Both paths are well worn in English naming, and the name appears often in fiction and drama, which is where many readers first encounter it. As a family name it can come from either source, so the surname's origin cannot always be decided from the spelling alone.