The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Ør (Norse Aurr 'gravel'), since the first church was built here.
The last element is skog (Norse skógr) 'woods' - and the meaning of the full name is 'the woods around the farm Aurr'.
As a result the municipality deemed the birds "destructive to the regional stability" and initiated a hunt that restored the trout population.
In 1939 the town sold a large portion of the excess of the meat to neighboring Oslo.
It is thought that this is possibly the reason for Aurskog's colloquial name in the region as "fugleherren" or in English "The Bird Master".