Lithuanian surnames: education, origin, origin

There are many nationalities in the world, and each of them has its own characteristics: in appearance, mentality and way of life. This applies to all aspects, including the hereditary generic name. Having heard a certain surname, you can already tell about which nationality this or that person belongs to and what kind of culture he is. In this article, we will talk more specifically about Lithuanian surnames and consider their origins.

How did it all start?

Modern Lithuanian surnames are divided into two groups: those that were formed directly in the territory of Lithuania, as well as others that originated outside the country, but eventually penetrated into the Lithuanian language. Until the 15th century this people did not have a surname as such, everyone called each other only by name. The situation changed when, at that time, Christianity came to the territory of the Baltic country.

In the Middle Ages, church politics began to be actively pursued, this also affected ancient Lithuania. In this regard, the beginning of the imposition of Christian names, because the Lithuanian, in fact, were pagan. As a result, in order not to lose their identity, the Lithuanians invented names for themselves, into which their ancient ancestral names became the time. At first they appeared only among representatives of rich families, and on the peasant same Wednesday they came much later.

How did the names arise?

Since the 16th century, the Church Slavonic language has been established in Lithuania, but the use of the Latin language began to decline. In the 18th century, after the general census and the villagers also had names that began to give to children by the name of their father, and, consequently, this generic name continued to pass from generation to generation. The suffix "-ovich", "-evych" was added to the name.

In Russia, for example, the suffix "- ich" was given only to those who were close to the tsar and the royal family, but in Lithuania they appropriated it to everyone. The Lithuanian nobility did not like this sounding of surnames: they saw in this the influence of Russia, so over time they began to actively change this suffix to the one used by the Poles and the "-skys". By the way, this prefix to the surname was used by the Eastern Slavs, but the difference was that the Poles at the same time relied on local names. Suppose the Pole lived in the village of Volia, and his surname became for this reason Volsky. Yet it is noticed that many Lithuanian surnames have Slavic suffixes and roots.

Value

Until now, the Lithuanian language has reached almost unchanged, so it is not difficult to understand what this or that name means. However, this is not always possible, and in some cases there are certain difficulties. What do the Lithuanian surnames mean? For example, Leitis means that the ancestor, who gave his name to the family, was once at the Leith service, that is, served under the Grand Duke, Vilkas in the translation sounds like a "wolf", with the Pilsudski family name - once lived in the Pilsudy area. Gintautas means "protecting people".

Old-Lithuanian personal names used to have two foundations, and, as a rule, in translation they denoted any qualities of a person or words that carry a deep meaning. The most popular were such people as taut - people, mines - thought, kant - patient, gile - sorry, pitchfork - hope.

The most popular Lithuanian surnames (male)

The English Wikipedia contains a list of the most popular Lithuanian surnames. Here is the original version and its translation into Russian. Kazlauskas - Kozlovsky, Petrauskas - Petrovsky, Jankauskas - Jankowski, Stankevičius - Stankevich, Vasiliauskas - Vasilevsky, Žukauskas - Zhukovsky, Butkevičus - Butkevych, Paulauskas - Pavlovsky, Kavaliauskas - Kowalewski.

You can also note such beautiful Lithuanian surnames as Astrauskas, Blyudzhus, Rudzitis, Simonaityte, Vaitonis, Mazeika, Kindzulis. As you can see, often the names end in -s.

The original Lithuanian surnames

And what do surnames with endings mean to "-itis", "-enas"? For example, such as Deimantas, Budris, Petkevicius. They emerged according to the following scheme: in the course of a large census the name was given to children named after their father. For example, Vitas' son became Vitenas. But it should be noted that the Lithuanians used such names only in colloquial speech. Officially in the documents they were recorded according to the Slavic metric.

The purely Lithuanian endings of surnames are thus the following: -Aitis (Adomaitis), -is (alis), -as (Aidintas), and also may be the ending -a (Radvila).

In such endings as -auskas, -evice, -inisk, that in the Russian translation will sound like -ovitch, -evice, -sky, -evski, -ski, the influence of the Slavic culture is traced, and they are no longer native Lithuanian.

Female surnames: rules of education

If we consider modern female Lithuanian surnames, then they received a significant difference from the male. They have suffixes -ut-, -it-, and -yout-, the father's surname is displayed in the root, and often the ending e- is present. For example, the male variant of the Butkus surname in the woman will already sound like Butkute, Orbakas turns into Orbakayte.

The names of married women are already somewhat different from the one that is available to her husband. The husband will be with the surname of Varnas, and his wife - Vernene. Thus, we see that the suffix -en is added, or, in some cases, -suben, -jewen, and also the ending -e. It should be noted that the rules concerning the formation of the female version of the surname are valid only in Lithuania. If the family lives in Russia, it will sound the same for both spouses. But if the girl is free, then her name will sound on the territory of our country, as if she lived in Lithuania. As you can see, there are a lot of nuances here that you just need to understand.

Do the names bend?

In the Lithuanian language there is a developed system of case declension. Often Lithuanian surnames of graduation have the letter -с, but here there are two options: either this letter is its integral part, or it simply points to the nominative case. That is, in other cases with declension, this very letter-c disappears. For example, the name Landsbergis, in the genitive language, already sounds like Landsberg. Many Latvians attach this letter to Russian surnames, for example, "Lenin" in their language sounds like Lenins, as the rules of grammar require. Female surnames, like men's. In the Latvian language all decline. But if used in Russian translation, then there is another rule: for women - do not bow, and for men - on the contrary.

Nuances in difference

Consider the example of popular names, as they will sound in two versions: male and female, thus, the same generic name of the couple sounds differently.

Kazlauskas - Kazlauskienė, Petrauskas - Petrauskene, Jankauskas - Jankauskiene, Stankevičius - Stankevičienė, Vasiliauskas - Vasiliauskienė, Žukauskas - Žukauskiene, Butkusen - Butkienė, Palauskas - Palauskienė, Urbonas - Urboniene, Kavaliauskas - Kavaliauskienė.

In the course of this article, we found out what the names mean, and also understood the history of their origin and how the declension of Lithuanian surnames occurs. They keep in themselves the wealth of one of the Baltic languages, which is famous for what has survived to our days unchanged.