Explore the Family Name Ost

The meaning of Ost

1. North German (rarely Öst) and Swedish (Öst); 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. As a Jewish name, as well as Swedish, it can be artificial (ornamental). Compare East and Oest 2. 2. English (Kent): variant of Host.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Ost in the United States?

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Ost has seen a slight decrease in popularity over the past decade. In 2000, Ost was ranked as the 20,152nd most popular surname, with approximately 1,230 individuals carrying this last name. By 2010, it had fallen to the 21,972nd rank and the count of people with this surname fell slightly to around 1,181, marking a change of -3.98%. The proportion of Osts per 100,000 people also saw a decrease of 13.04% between 2000 and 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#20,152	#21,972	-9.03%
Count	1,230	1,181	-3.98%
Proportion per 100k	0.46	0.4	-13.04%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Ost

Discussing the ethnic identity of individuals with the surname Ost, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census indicates that the majority identify as White, although there has been a slight decrease of 1.74% in this group between 2000 and 2010. There was an impressive increase of 114.38% in those identifying as Hispanic over the same period. Those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and Black also experienced small increases of 4.08% and 2.44% respectively. However, the percentage of individuals identifying as belonging to two or more races or as American Indian and Alaskan Native both slightly decreased.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.88%	93.23%	-1.74%
Hispanic	1.46%	3.13%	114.38%
Two or More Races	1.46%	1.44%	-1.37%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.3%	1.27%	-2.31%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.49%	0.51%	4.08%
Black	0.41%	0.42%	2.44%