Lithuanian name
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A Lithuanian
Vardas (given name)
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:
- Lithuanian names of pre-Christian origin.
These are the most ancient layer of Lithuanian personal names; a majority of them are dual-
- Biblical names or saint's names.
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 in
- Lithuanian common nouns or hydronymsused as names.
There are popular names constructed from the words for celestial bodies (Saulė for the
- invented names from literature.
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 by
- names of Lithuanian pagan deities and mythological figures.
There are some popular names of gods and goddesses from Lithuanian mythology that are used as personal names, such as Laima, goddess of luck, Žemyna, goddess of earth, Gabija, goddess of fire; Žilvinas, a serpent prince from the fairy tale Eglė the Queen of Serpents, Jūratė, goddess of the sea, and Kastytis, from the legend about Jūratė and Kastytis.
A distinctive practice dominated in the
The choice of a given name is influenced by fashion. Many parents may name their child after a
Sex differentiation
Lithuanian male and female names are distinguished grammatically. Almost all Lithuanian female names end in the vowels -a or -
Diminutives
Diminutives are very popular in everyday usage, and are by no means reserved for children. The Lithuanian language allows for a great deal of creativity in this field. Most diminutives are formed by adding a suffix. 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 a nickname (pravardė) in addition to or instead of a given name.
Pavardė (surname)
Lithuanian surnames, like those in most of Europe, are hereditary and generally patrilineal, 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 of Slavic origin that currently possess the partially Lithuanized 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 as Grand Duchy of Lithuania using Ruthenian as its official written language instead of Lithuanian since the first written records of the Baltic language date back only to the 16th century. This led to Lithuanian personal and family names to be written by applying Slavic phonetics and morphology.[2] The influence of Slavic naming only grew when Lithuania formed a bi-federation with the Crown 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 the interwar period,[3] Lithuanians, unlike countries such as Finland where Fennomans urged their compatriots to change their family names of Swedish origin into Finnish ones, 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 her
History
Family names first appeared in Lithuania around 1500,
The use of family names gradually spread to other social groups: the
Classification
Based on origin, several groups of Lithuanian family names may be recognized.
Ancient given names
A number of surnames evolved from the ancient Lithuanian personal names, such as
Cognominal
A
Examples:
- Naujokas, Naujokaitis – from naujas ("new one")
- Kairys, Kairelis, – "leftie", from kairė ("left side")
Occupational
Examples of
- Kalvis, Kalvelis, Kalvaitis – from kalvis ("blacksmith")
Toponymic
A toponymic surname usually derives from the name of a village or town, or the name of a topographic feature.
Examples:
- Užugiris – from across the forest (už girios);
- Kalnietis – from the mountains (kalnai).
Patronymic
A patronymic surname derives from a given name of a person and usually ends in a suffix suggesting a family relation.
Examples:
- Jonaitis, Janavičius, Januitis – derived from Jonas (John);
- Adomaitis, Adamonis – derived from Adomas (Adam);
- Lukauskis, Lukša, Lukošius, Lukoševičius – derived from Lukas (Luke).
For this group of names the use of suffixes that cognate to the Slavic equivalent, such as -avičius (cognate of "-owicz"), -auskas (cognate of "-owski") is common:
Diminutives
A number of surnames are diminutives of popular first names.[6]
Feminine forms
Lithuanian surnames have specific masculine 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 |
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).[7] These names are used, although traditional forms are still predominant.[8] According to the
- Kazlauskienė
- Jankauskienė
- Petrauskienė
- Stankevičienė
- Paulauskienė
Formal and informal use
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:
- using surnames vs. given names;
- using vs. not using honorific titles such as Ponas / Ponia;
- using the third person singular forms vs. second person singular;
- using second-person singular personal pronoun vs. second-person plural personal pronoun to address a single person.
Formal language
Ponas/Ponia/Tamsta
Ponas and Ponia (vocative case Pone, 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 the szlachta 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, and Ponaitis ("Mister"), traditionally applied to an unmarried man but these days the latter style is rarely used in practice. Although widely used, the honorific styles Ponas and Ponia came into Lithuanian as direct loanwords from the Polish language.[9] The honorific style of Lithuanian origin is Tamsta (vocative case Tamsta), which can be used either as a gender-neutral honorific style or a polite way to refer to someone whose name is unknown.[10] However, the latter is rarely practiced today in the standard Lithuanian language.
Given name/surname order
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 language
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.
See also
- Name of Lithuania
- Lithuanian nobility
- Onomastics
Notes
- ^ Notably, Gelgaudiškis from Gedgaudas, Radviliškis from Radvila, Buivydiškės from Butvydas, etc.
- Adamkus" is a diminutive of "Adomas"
References
- ^ "Sportas – neatsiejamas Prezidento Valdo Adamkaus gyvenimo palydovas" [Sport is an integral part of President Valdas Adamkus' life]. Lietuvos olimpinis muziejus (in Lithuanian). 3 November 2016. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
- ^ a b c Zinkevičius, Zigmas (20 November 2010). "Lietuviškos ir nelietuviškos pavardės [Lithuanian and Non-Lithuanian Surnames] (in Lithuanian)". Commission of the Lithuanian Language.
- ^ a b c Skučaitė, Virginija (October 2, 2009). Ar turėtume lietuvinti slaviškas pavardes? [Should We Lithuanize Slavic Surnames?](in Lithuanian). Klaipėda.
- ^ a b Schmalstieg, William R. (1982). "Lithuanian names". Lituanus. 28 (3). Archived from the original on 2012-06-25. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
- ^ Juozas Kudirka , The Lithuanians:An Ethnic Portrait, section Lithuanian surnames (translation of the book: Juozas Kudirka, Lietuviai: etniniai bruožai, 1991)
- ISBN 0806311509, p. 83
- ^ "N-2(87) Dėl moterų pavardžių darymo". e-seimas.lrs.lt. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
- ^ a b Naujoviškos pavardės tradicinių neišstūmė. Veidas magazine, 2008/9 Archived 2008-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Ponas (In Lithuanian)". Database of Lithuanian Etymological Dictionary.
- ^ "Ar įvardis "tamsta" laikomas kreipiniu? (in Lithuanian)". Commission of the Lithuanian Language.
Further reading
- Jūratė Čirūnaitė, "Lietuvos totorių pavardžių formavimasis XV–XVII a." (The Formation Of Tatar Naming Practices in Lithuania in the 15th–17th centuries), Baltistica, vol. 36, no. 2 (198) pp. 299–306.
- Alfred Senn, "Lithuanian Surnames," American Slavic and East European Review, vol. 4, no. 1/2 (Aug. 1945), pp. 127–137. in JSTOR