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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : occupational name for an innkeeper, from Middle English, Old French (h)oste ‘host’, ‘guest’.
  • Danish (Høst) : nickname from høst ‘harvest’, ‘autumn’ (see Herbst).
  • French : from Old French ost ‘army’, hence an occupational name for a soldier.
  • Dutch : from the Germanic personal name Austa, meaning ‘east’.
  • German : habitational name from either of two places called Host, near Koblenz and near Bitburg.

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