Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German ast ‘knot (in wood)’, ‘branch’, hence a nickname for a tough or awkward individual or a metonymic occupational name for a lumberjack.
- North German : occupational name, from Middle Low German arste ‘physician’, a variant of Arzt.
- Southern French : from Occitan ast ‘pike or lance’, probably an occupational name for a maker of these weapons.