Family name origins & meanings
- German : from an agent derivative of Middle High German doste, toste ‘wild thyme’, ‘shrub’, ‘bouquet’ (see Dost), hence a topographic name, especially for someone whose land abutted an uncultivated piece of land, or possibly an occupational name for a dealer in herbs.
- Belgian French : habitational name, with the preposition d(e), for someone from either of two places in the province of Luxembourg named Oster.