Dictionary of Family Names

CHESTER.   From the city of Chester, the capital of Cheshire, England, founded by the Romans.  The name is derived from the Latin Castrum; Saxon, ceaster, a fortified place, a city, a castle or camp, it being a Roman station where the twentieth legion was quartered.  The Roman stations in England were generally so called, being sometimes varied in dialect to Chester, Chaster, or Caster, the termination of many English towns, as Colchester, the camp on the river Coln; Doncaster, on the Don; Lancaster, on the Lon or Lune, etc.