Från wikipedia:
Citat:
Since the Viking age, the Scandinavians have called it "the Eastern Lake" (Austmarr, "Eastern Sea", appears in the Heimskringla and Eystra salt appears in Sörla þáttr), but Saxo Grammaticus recorded in Gesta Danorum an older name Gandvik, "-vik" being Old Norse for "bay", which implies that the Vikings correctly regarded it as an inlet of the sea.
Från en artikel som heter King Alfred's "Geats" (skriven av Kemp Malone och publicerad i The Modern Language Review, vol. 20, no. 1, år 1925, sid. 1-11) kan man läsa följande:
Citat:
The term 'Ostsae' 'Baltic' corresponds to the Icelandic 'austmarr' (recorded as early as the Ynglingatal), and is doubtless of Scandinavian origin, although the second element has been anglicized.