Easter was named from what Anglo-Saxon goddess?

Easter was named from Ēostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess associated with a springtime month and festival.

The main written evidence comes from the Northumbrian monk Bede, who described Ēostre in his early eighth-century work The Reckoning of Time. He wrote that the Anglo-Saxons called a month roughly corresponding to April Ēosturmōnaþ, meaning “Ēostre’s month,” and that the name later became associated with the Christian feast of Easter.

The name is related to Old English words connected with dawn and the east, and scholars compare it with the reconstructed Germanic name Ostara. This helps explain why Easter’s English and German names differ from the Latin-derived names used in many other languages, such as French Pâques and Spanish Pascua.

The history is not entirely free of debate. Ēostre is mentioned in only one surviving ancient literary source, and scholars have disagreed about the details of her worship and her connection with modern Easter customs. There is no firm ancient evidence linking her to Easter eggs or rabbits. Even so, Ēostre is the conventional answer to this trivia question.