Family name origins & meanings
- German, North German (also Öst), Swedish (also Öst), and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : topographic name from German Ost(en), Swedish öst ‘east’ denoting someone who lived to the east of a settlement or who had come there from the east. Compare East. As a Jewish name, as well as Swedish, it can be ornamental.
- German : from a short form of any of various Germanic personal names formed with this element (see Oest).