This surname is usually recorded as Pulster and Bulster, and is of early Germanic origins. According to the German Dictionary of Surnames, it is locational from a place or places called 'Puls' meaning a pool or lake, and hence the surname describes or described in medieval times, a person who lived at such a place, or who worked there. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. As spelling was at best erratic and as local accents in all countries were very thick, the spelling of such names was often a lottery. This was particularly so if for any reason the name crossed the seas to say an English speaking country. Here the ultimate spelling was often so far removed from the original it was quite impossible in many cases to say, with any serious intent, what the name was originally. This applies here, and remains a matter of conjecture. In this case we have early German recording examples of the surname as we believe that it was originally spelt. These include Conrad dictus Pultscher of Eblingen in the year 1351, and that of Franz Bulster of Freiburg, who appears in the charters of that city in 1312.

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