A Lithuanianpersonal name, as in most European cultures, consists of two main elements: thegiven name (vardas) followed by thefamily name (pavardė). The usage of personal names inLithuania is generally governed (in addition to personal taste and family custom) by three major factors:civil law,canon law, and tradition. Lithuanian names always follow the rules of theLithuanian language. Lithuanian male names have preserved theIndo-European masculine endings (-as;-is;-us). These gendered endings are preserved even for foreign names.
A child in Lithuania is usually given one or two given names. Nowadays the second given name is rarely used in everyday situations. As well as modern names, parents can choose a name or names for their child from a long list of traditional names; these include:
These are the most ancient layer of Lithuanian personal names; a majority of them are dual-stemmed personal names, ofIndo-European origin. These ancient Lithuanian names are constructed from two interconnectedstems, the combination of which has been used to denote certain beneficial personal qualities, for exampleJo-gaila means "a strong rider". Although virtually extinct following theChristianization of Lithuania, they continued to exist assurnames, such asGoštautas,Kęsgaila,Radvila or in their Slavicised versions, as well as intoponyms.[note 1] The existing surnames and written sources have allowed linguists such asKazimieras Būga to reconstruct these names. In the period between World War I and World War II these names returned to popular use after a long period of neglect. Children are often named in honor of the most revered historical Lithuanian rulers; these are some of the most popular names. They includeVytautas,Gediminas,Algirdas, andŽygimantas. In line with the double-stemmed names, shorter variants containing only one stem were also used, such asVytenis andKęstutis. Since there are few pre-Christian female names attested in written sources, they are often reconstructed from male variants, in addition to the historicalBirutė,Aldona,Rimgailė etc.
The use of Christian names in the Lithuanian language long predates the adoption of Christianity by Lithuanians. The linguistic data attest that first Biblical names started to be used inAukštaitija as early as the 11th century. The earliest stratum of such names originates fromOld Church Slavonic; they were borrowed byEastern Orthodoxy in theirByzantine versions. Examples of such names areAntanas (St. Anthony),Povilas orPaulius (St. Paul),Andrius (St. Andrew) andJurgis (St. George), while female names includeKotryna (St. Catherine) andMarija (St. Mary). The later influx of Christian names came after the adoption of Christianity in 1387. They are mostly borrowed in theirPolish versions:Jonas (St. John),Vladislovas/Vladas (St. Ladislaus),Kazimieras/Kazys (St. Casimir),Ona (St. Anne), etc.
There are popular names constructed from the words for celestial bodies (Saulė for theSun,Aušrinė forVenus), events of nature (Audra for storm,Aušra fordawn,Rasa fordew,Vėjas for wind,Aidas forecho), plants (Linas/Lina forflax,Eglė forspruce), and river names (Ūla,Vilija forRiver Neris).
Some names were created by the authors of literary works and spread in public use through them. Such names followed the rules of the Lithuanian language; therefore it is sometimes difficult to tell whether the name is fictitious and had never existed before. Notably,Gražina,Živilė byAdam Mickiewicz,Daiva byVydūnas,Šarūnas byVincas Krėvė and others.
There are some popular names of gods and goddesses fromLithuanian mythology that are used as personal names, such asLaima, goddess of luck,Žemyna, goddess of earth,Gabija, goddess of fire;Žilvinas, a serpent prince from the fairy taleEglė the Queen of Serpents,Jūratė, goddess of the sea, andKastytis, from the legend aboutJūratė and Kastytis.
A distinctive practice dominated in theethnic region ofLithuania Minor, then part ofEast Prussia, where LithuanizedGerman personal names were common, such asAnsas (Hans),Grėtė (Grete),Vilius (Wilhelm) amongPrussian Lithuanians. Some of them are still in use among Lithuanians.
The choice of a given name is influenced by fashion. Many parents may name their child after anational hero or heroine, some otherwise famous person, or a character from a book, film, orTV show. However, many names used in today's Lithuania have been in use since the ancient times.
Lithuanian male and female names are distinguished grammatically. Almost all Lithuanian female names end in the vowels-a or-ė, while male names almost always end in-s, and rarely in a vowel-a or-ė, e.g.Mozė (Moses). If a masculine name ending in-a has a feminine counterpart, it ends in-ė, e.g.Jogaila andJogailė. Female double-stemmed Lithuanian names always end in-ė.
Diminutives are very popular in everyday usage, and are by no means reserved for children. TheLithuanian language allows for a great deal of creativity in this field. Most diminutives are formed by adding asuffix. For female names this may be-elė, -utė, -ytė, or-užė; certain suffixes are more common to specific names over the rest.[clarification needed]
Also, as in many other cultures, a person may informally use anickname (pravardė) in addition to or instead of a given name.
_(cropped).jpg)
Lithuanian surnames, like those in most of Europe, are hereditary and generallypatrilineal, i.e., passed from the father to his children. Formally, Lithuanian surnames are divided into two groups—Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian ones.[2] Non-Lithuanian surnames are typically ofSlavic origin that currently possess the partiallyLithuanized endings-auskas, -iauskas, -inskas, -ickas, -eckis, -avičius, -evičius, or-iškis for males and their corresponding forms for married and unmarried females.[2] This is mainly due to historical reasons such asGrand Duchy of Lithuania usingRuthenian as its official written language instead ofLithuanian since the first written records of theBaltic language date back only to the16th century. This led to Lithuanian personal and family names to be written by applying Slavicphonetics andmorphology.[2] The influence of Slavic naming only grew when Lithuania formed abi-federation with theCrown of the Kingdom of Poland later on. However, in the 1930s, politicians considered passing legal acts, which would allow Lithuanians to adopt alternative family names of Lithuanian origin, but this suggestion faced many legal barriers and was criticized by some linguists who believed such family names to be of historical importance.[3] Although some did manage to change their last names during theinterwar period,[3] unlike countries such asFinland whereFennomans urged their compatriots tochange their family names ofSwedish origin into Finnish ones, or Estonia, where 17% of the population Estonianized their surnames in 1935–40,[4] Lithuanians never underwent such a process on a mass scale. In 2009, the question of Lithuanians being allowed to fully Lithuanize their family names was raised again, but it received little support.[3]
A married woman usually adopts her husband's name. However, other combinations are legally possible. The wife may keep hermaiden name (mergautinė pavardė) or add her husband's surname to hers, thus creating adouble-barrelled name. It is also possible, though rare, for the husband to adopt his wife's surname or to add his wife's surname to his family name.
Family names first appeared in Lithuania around 1500,[5] but were reserved for theLithuanian nobility. They usually derived frompatronymics.
The use of family names gradually spread to other social groups: thetownsfolk by the end of the 17th century, then thepeasantry. People from the villages did not have last names until the end of the 18th century. In such cases their village of origin was usually noted in documents. The process ended only in the mid-19th century, and due to the partialPolonization of society at the time many names were influenced by Polish form of the name.[5]
Based on origin, several groups of Lithuanian family names may be recognized.
A number of surnames evolved from the ancient Lithuanian personal names, such asBudrys,Girdenis,Tylenis,Vilkas,Amantas,Bukantas,Rimgaila,Vizgirda,Tarvydas.[6] A number of them were identified from historical names of villages, farmsteads, etc., often in plural, named after the founding families, e.g.,Darbutas.[7][8][9]
Acognominal surname derives from a person's nickname, usually based on a physical or character trait.
Examples:
Examples ofoccupational surnames:
Atoponymic surname usually derives from the name of a village or town, or the name of a topographic feature.
Examples:
Apatronymic surname derives from a given name of a person and usually ends in a suffix suggesting a family relation.
Native Lithuanianpatronymic suffixes are -aitis, -utis, -ytis,-ėlis.[10] Patronymic suffixes-vičius/-vičiūtė/-vičienė are borrowed from Ruthenian suffix-vich.Examples:
A number of surnames arediminutives of popular first names.[11]
There also is a rare archaic usage of a diminutive suffix,-iukas, appended to surnames, e.g., Dankša -> Dankšiukas, Kaplanas -> Kaplaniukas,Sederevičius -> Sederevičiukas.[12]
For toponymic and patronymic names the use of suffixes that cognate to the Slavic equivalent, such as-avičius (cognate of "-owicz"),-auskas (cognate of "-owski") is common:Jankauskas (cognate of SlavicJankowski),Adamkevičius (cognate ofAdamkowicz orAdamkiewicz),Lukoševičius (cognate ofŁukaszewicz).
Lithuanian surnames have specificmasculine and feminine forms. While a masculine surname usually ends in-as,-ys or-is, its feminine equivalent ends in-ienė or rarely-uvienė for married women and-aitė,-utė,-iūtė or-ytė for unmarried ones.Examples:
| Father / husband | Married woman or widow | Unmarried woman |
|---|---|---|
| Paulauskas | Paulauskienė | Paulauskaitė |
| Bimbirys | Bimbirienė | Bimbirytė |
| Adamkus | Adamkienė | Adamkutė |
| Mielkus | Mielkienė/Mielkuvienė | Mielkutė |
| Kulėšius | Kulėšienė | Kulėšiūtė |
There also is a rare archaic suffix for the unmarried feminine surname,-iukė, e.g.,Martinaitis -> Martinaičiukė, which is a diminutive suffix.[13]In 2003, Lithuanian laws allowed women to use a short form, without disclosing the marital status (ending in -ė instead of -ienė/-aitė/etc.: Adamkus → Adamkė).[14] These names are used, although traditional forms are still predominant.[15]According to theState Data Agency, in 2008 the most popular feminine family names were:[15]
Lithuanians pay great attention to the correct way of referring to or addressing other people depending on the level of social distance, familiarity and politeness. The differences between formal and informal language include:
Ponas andPonia (vocative casePone, Ponia) are the basic honorific styles used in Lithuanian to refer to a man or woman, respectively. In the past, these styles were reserved to members of theszlachta and played more or less the same roles as "Lord" or "Sir" and "Lady" or "Madam" in English. Since the 19th century, they have come to be used in all strata of society and may be considered equivalent to the English "Mr." and "Ms." There is a separate style,Panelė ("Miss"), applied to an unmarried woman, andPonaitis ("Mister"), traditionally applied to an unmarried man but these days the latter style is rarely used in practice. Although widely used, the honorific stylesPonas andPonia came into Lithuanian as direct loanwords from thePolish language.[16] The honorific style of Lithuanian origin isTamsta (vocative caseTamsta), which can be used either as agender-neutral honorific style or a polite way to refer to someone whose name is unknown.[17] However, the latter is rarely practiced today in the standard Lithuanian language.
The given name(s) normally comes before the surname. However, in a list of people sorted alphabetically by surname, the surname usually comes first. In many formal situations the given name is omitted altogether.
Informal forms of address are normally used only by relatives, close friends and colleagues. In such situations diminutives are often preferred to the standard forms of given names.