Named after the town of Strausberg, on the Straussee lake.
The oldest forms of the name, such as ‘Struceberch’ (1247), probably come from the nearby lake ‘Struz’ – perhaps from a Slavic word for bean or pod, after the lake’s long shape. The German inhabitants reinterpreted it as ‘strus’, Middle High German for ostrich. The station on the Prussian Eastern Railway opened in 1867, several kilometres south of the town centre.