Ekstrom
A Scandinavian surname meaning “island stream” or “river by an island.”
The #8,659 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 81,356 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ekstrom is a Swedish surname built from ek, meaning “oak,” and ström, meaning “stream” or “current,” though in some older spellings and related place-names the first element may reflect ek/ek- as a place or landscape term rather than a simple English-style translation. In most modern surname dictionaries, it is treated as a compound of a natural feature plus a water term, the kind of name often taken from a farm or locality. The literal sense is therefore along the lines of “oak stream” or “stream by the oaks,” depending on the specific place-name behind the family name.
History
The name is typical of Swedish surname formation from natural features and place-names, and it likely spread through the usual Scandinavian pattern of adopting a fixed hereditary surname in the 19th century. The spelling Ekstrom is an anglicized form of Swedish Ekström, with the diacritic often dropped after migration to English-speaking countries. It is found among Swedish emigrant families in North America and elsewhere.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Dropping the umlaut in Ekström is one of the most common ways Scandinavian surnames were adapted in English-speaking records.