A male name. this name appears first among the Counts of Foix and Béarn, and was introduced to France proper by Gaston Duke of Orléans, s. of Henry IV. It is now a common French name and is also used in other countries. The etymology is doubtful, but, since the name sometimes appears in early records as Gascon, it may well be that it was originally a racial designation (cf. Norman, German, Francis). That this phonetic change could take place is shown by 13th-C records quoted by C. W. Bardsley, Dictionary of English and WelshSurnames (pub. 1901) which refer to the same man at one time as William de Gasconia and at another as William de Gaston.

M. Properly and mostly French, it may derive from Spanish or, more precisely, Basque, in which not so ancient language it is thought to mean ‘beautiful town’.

A name imported from France, as in Gaston de Foix. Lower says that in the Hundred Rolls the surname is written De la Garston, which he derives from the Anglo Saxon garstun, grass enclosure. We have also the name Garstin, which Ferguson says is the Old Norse personal name Geirsteinn, found in the Landnamabok. But Gaston is more probably from the Fr. gaston, bâton; or, like the Parisian names Gastot, Gasteau, Gastal, a diminutive of the name Gast; from gast, which Roquefort renders ‘seigneur,’ and derives from the Latin vastus (huge, burly). Borel translates the old word gastos, ‘savant, sage;’ whence he says have been derived the old Gaulish names Wisogastus, Husegastus, Salegastus, Losogastus, who wrote the Salic Law.

Teutonic (masculine) - Hospitable.

A Teutonic name, meaning: Hospitable.