The Ottonian dynasty was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after its first Emperor Otto I, but also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem duchy of Saxony. The family itself is also sometimes known as the Liudolfings (Liudolfinger), after its earliest known member Count Liudolf (d. 866) and one of its primary leading-names. The Ottonian rulers were successors of the Carolingian dynasty in East Francia.