# Easter (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/easter/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 13,036 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,769 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 23,684 people |
| Change since 2000 | +9.2% (11,941 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈistəɹ/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English ester, from Old English ēastre, seemingly from Ēastre, a proposed Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn whose festival is thought to have been celebrated around the vernal equinox. Further from Proto-West Germanic *Austrā, from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ, derived from either Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“dawn; east”) or, more semantically plausible, from *austrą, *auzrą, a metathesized form of *wazrą (“spring (season)”), *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”). The English word is cognate with German Low German Oostern (“Easter”), Old High German ōstarūn (modern German Ostern) and is possibly a doublet of east. Despite a modern folk etymology, not related to Ishtar. The verb is derived from the noun.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Easter in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 67% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 27% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.0% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.4% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 2.5% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Easter in the United States.

## People named Easter

- Ben Easter, American actor and photographer
- Mitch Easter, American musician and record producer

## Similar surnames

Ester, Easterling, Easterday, Easterly, Eastridge, Easterwood, Esters, Estrada, Estrella, Ekstrom, Escudero, Estridge.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.