Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : nickname for a stranger or newcomer to a community, Middle High German gast ‘foreigner’, ‘guest’, ‘stranger’, German Gast.
  • German and Swiss German : from a short form of a personal name Gastolf, or Alemannic from the personal name Arbogast.
  • French : topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of waste land, Old French gast.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe