Where did “Easter” Come From?

“Easter” is the English name of the traditional Sunday anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection (Resurrection Sunday). Why is this the case? Where did the name “Easter” come from?

The earliest explanation about the name “Easter” was provided by an English Christian named Bede, who lived during the 8th century CE:

Eosturmonath is now interpreted as “Passover month”. It was once named after a goddess of theirs, called Eostre. In that month, they also celebrated feasts. Now, they name the Passover season by her name. They call the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.

— Church History of the English People 15.

Bede noted that during his time, the English Christians called the Passover season “Eosturmonath” because that was the name of the English month when the English Christians kept Passover. During that time, most Christians around the world kept Passover on Resurrection Sunday.

This English month, Eosturmonath, was named after the English goddess Eostre. Yet, during the time of Bede, the English Christians no longer thought about the goddess Eostre when they used the name “Eosturmonath”. Rather, they understood the term “Eosturmonath” to mean “Passover month”.

This same phenomenon happened with the names of days and months that we use today. For example, the English name for one of the weekdays is “Thursday”, which comes from the name of the Norse god Thor. Yet, English-speaking people today do not think that Thursday is “Thor’s day” or a special day to honour Thor. Rather, we use the name “Thursday” simply because that is the name of the weekday in our language.

As the English language developed, the name for Resurrection Sunday eventually became “Easter”. It is important to note that Resurrection Sunday is only called “Easter” in English. In most other languages, the names for Resurrection Sunday come from the Biblical Greek word for “Passover”. Before Christianity reached England, no one used “Easter” as a name for Passover or Resurrection Sunday.