Frost
A surname that likely began as a nickname or personal name connected with frost, cold, or the winter spirit in medieval tradition.
The #822 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 7,348 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally taken from the word for frost or cold, used either as a descriptive byname or as a personal name. Older writers also connected it with a Scandinavian dwarf name and with the nursery figure "Jack Frost," though that part of the story is more literary and folkloric than strictly genealogical. It may also have been reinforced by the Old Norse personal name Forst/Frosti and by similar medieval forms in England.
History
The name is found in England early, including medieval records and pre-Domesday forms such as Alwin Forst in Hampshire. Some bearers may descend from a nickname based on a cold or pale disposition, while others may come from a personal name rather than a weather term. It later spread widely in England and then to North America and other English-speaking regions.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
"Jack Frost" helped keep the name Frost alive in English folklore, making it one of the surnames with a built-in seasonal image.
From the historical record
“for tlio historian of Cresci and Poictiers. FROST. Frost is the name of a dwarf in the Scandinavian mythology, and our nursery hero, "Jack Frost," as Mr. Fer- guson suggests, may be derived from that source. One Alwin Forst was a tenant in CO. Hants before Domesd., aud his name by a slight and common transposition…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom