(origin: Local) 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.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

CHESTER. The palatine city; also places in Durham, Northumb., and Derby. It was probably from Little Chester, in the last-named co., that the Chesters of Cockenhatch assumed the name.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.