Given name & surname
Salter
“player of psaltery”
Salter is a surname with more than one origin.
Meaning & origin
What it means
As an English surname, Salter goes back to Middle English sautreour, meaning “player of psaltery.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
As an English surname, it comes from Middle English sautreour.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Middle English sautreour (“player of psaltery”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2025. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Salter through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 5
- 5 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2025
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #13,545 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 13,545 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 13,839 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Salter’s family of names
In English usage, Salter as a surname has a related form in SALZER. In English usage, Salter as a surname has a related form in SAUTER.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
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