Meaning of the name Ostertag

Perhaps you already noticed that besides Ostertag or Easterday there are many other surnames which have Easter (Ostern) as the first part. For example, in Germany there are the names Ostertal (Tal = valley) or Osterwald (Wald = forest). But these surnames differ from the name Ostertag because of their second part which refers to a place in difference to our name which contains a period of time.

So it's clear that in the other Names the Oster (Easter) means the direction East (Ost in German), as it is also found in names of towns like Osterrode. Against that, the surname Ostertag clearly refers to the Easter holiday. On this day there once had to be occured an event which was so meaningful for the first bearer of the name Ostertag that later he was called after this event.

There are three family legends about the appearing of the name