Lithuanian names and surnames for men. Lithuanian surnames: formation, occurrence, origin

I couldn’t sleep one night... So I decided to google a list of the most common Lithuanian surnames.
Funny? Nothing funny.

The reason for this was a dispute that arose the day before with a friend and relative, my son’s godfather, Andrei Andrijauskas. Lithuanian, as the surname suggests.
So here it is. For some reason we got hooked on the Lithuanian language, Lithuania is still nearby, we travel sometimes... Andrei said that despite his origin, “well, he just can’t learn this damn language.” But I, on the contrary, noticed that “..how can it be, the languages ​​are related, of course nothing is clear at first, but it’s very easy to learn, the roots of the words are mostly the same Slavic, it’s easy to remember..” To which Andrei, his eyes bulging, stated that this is a Scandinavian (!!!) group of languages, which has nothing in common with continental European (especially Slavic) languages, the language is ancient and incomprehensibly mysterious.
Neither my admonitions nor Google convinced him or my brother’s wife (also Lithuanian) otherwise. They stand their ground and that’s it!

Therefore, I declared in my hearts “.. Andrijauskas is Andriyavsky with the typical Belarusian “long-u” and the replacement of the unstressed vowel ending with the signature Lithuanian “-as, -is.” And this surname cannot be Lithuanian (yes), but and Polish, because Poles replace “r” before a vowel with “-zh-, -sh-”, and there is a typical Belarusian one, because there was once the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was the only original Russia before the start of its polonization And in general - look at Lithuanian words and then at Lithuanian surnames and you will suddenly find yourself dumbfounded by your language and origin...." !!!

Let's get back to last names. The fact remains - no matter how much you change the ending, the origin of the surname is obvious. So “Mamedov” does not automatically become Russian.

Does this mean that there are no Lithuanian surnames? Against. The country is rich in original surnames and given names. Lithuanians have about 3 thousand proper names alone. That's a lot. But these prevail. It is a fact.
And why?

History, guys, look at history.

PS: I would like to say separately about the Lithuanian language. I like this language. And I like it precisely because of that archaic antiquity, from which it emanates Sanskrit and ancient Slavic. This language is a monument. And no Latvian, also included in the subgroup, stands nearby. This language must be protected. And I am in favor with both hands - let the young country, essentially re-creating the nation today, choose this unique ancient language for your future. But there is no need to rewrite the past. Just go to the museum and see in what language all the documents and laws of ancient Lithuania were written. We can be proud of this past.
After all, without a past, we have no roots. And without roots, the contents will sooner or later become dry.

The system of Lithuanian surnames, of different origins and heterogeneous, was formed by the 18th century. Lithuanian female surnames were distinguished by their ending, which belonged to feminine. Over time, the suffix version of the formation of female surnames became established. Many examples can be given: from the male surname Dyarkinte the female surname Dyarkintas was formed, or from the male surname Raude the female surname Raudis was formed. IN modern times Lithuanian women's surnames differ significantly from men's. They are formed using the father's Oson surname and the suffixes ut, ait, and yut, as well as the ending –e. Examples: the surname Orbakas for a woman sounds like Orbakaite, male surname Butkus is transformed into the female Butkute, and the surname Katilyus is transformed into Katilute. Married Lithuanian women take their husband's surname with minor changes. The suffix en is added to it, in in rare cases- suffixes - uven and juven, also ending -e. Examples of surnames: Varnene is derived from Varnas, Grinyuvene is derived from Grinius.

Lithuanian surnames - formation, appearance, origin of Lithuanian surnames

Recently in Lithuania, a widely used three-member anthroponymic system was used in all official documents. It consisted in the fact that the surname and first name of the father were added to the personal name. The father's name was used exclusively in genitive case, and in the Russian anthroponymic system it corresponded to the patronymic. Now in Everyday life, a two-member anthroponymic system used by Lithuanians. It represents a personal name and surname. It’s interesting, but in cases where Russians obtain citizenship in Lithuania, they lose the middle name written in their passport. Often, after arriving in Russia, there are embarrassments when a Lithuanian citizen does not have a patronymic, but his first and last name are Russian.
In modern times, about 50 percent of Lithuanian personal names in Lithuania belong to the national or ancient Lithuanian Biruta. The rest of the surnames are of various origins. In most cases these are Christian surnames. Of course, male Lithuanian surnames and female surnames are significantly different. We talked about this above.

Lithuanian surnames - when were the majority of Lithuanian surnames formed?

The end of the 20th century showed that about 30 percent of Lithuanian surnames are surnames Lithuanian origin, but 70 percent do not. Most of the surnames are of Slavic origin. They came to Lithuania together with the Slavs. It’s interesting, but until the 15th century, Lithuanians called themselves only by personal names. Names according to word formation were divided into three main types. The first type included two-basic names. For example, Gedi is minas. The second type includes single-base names that were formed using one component belonging to two-base personal names. In this case, some suffixes could be used. The third type included single-base personal names. They were formed from common nouns. These words could be nicknames. There are many examples of such names: Vilkas comes from fishing Vilkas - wolf. And the name Lokis comes from the word bear.
In ancient times female names differed mainly in the generic ending. First of all, two-basic personal names had a noble onomastic meaning. That is, the names reflected some human qualities. They were very highly regarded by the people. You can give an example of the surname Gintautas. It means protecting the people. The most common stems of Old Lithuanian personal names are tauta- (tauta - people), min- (mintis - thought), kant- (kantrus - patient), gail- (gailetis - regret), vil- (viltis - hope). After some time, the connection between two-basic personal names and common nouns was lost. Personal names began to be formed from mechanical components. Because of this, the meaning of most two-base names has become difficult to explain. Like Germanic, Balsky personal two-basic names lost their semantics very early, but Slavic names kept it. With increasing population growth and strengthening connections that arise between different ethnic groups, it has become difficult to call a person by just one name. A two-part naming method emerges. In this case, personal names receive special definitions. And after baptism, the famous courtiers of Prince Vytautas began to call themselves by two personal names, one of which was Christian, and the other was ancient Lithuanian. And in contracts of the 15th century, historians have discovered personal names written with surnames. The introduction of Christianity had a significant role in the formation of Lithuanian surnames. It was the personal names of Lithuanians that became Christian, and the ancient Lithuanian names formed the basis of the emerging Lithuanian surnames. of course, at the end of the 19th century, the displacement of Christian personal names by national or ancient Lithuanian personal names began. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a two-part naming method developed. But there were also other ways of assigning a name until the 18th century. For example, it was a single-term method, a two-term and a three-term method. Some personal names also began to turn into surnames, as well as suffixed patronymics and epithets.
The most common suffixes in the 17th century were the suffixes aitis, onis, utis, enas and unas. Slavic suffixes such as evich, ovich, evski, ovski and ski were also common. Since 1697 they were translated into Polish language both Lithuanian suffixes and surnames themselves. Nicknames were common in the 16th century. but over time they turned into surnames.
Interestingly, the Lithuanian anthroponymic system contains about 3000 personal names. Therefore, it is very difficult to understand the names and surnames of the inhabitants of this country. There is no such people on the planet as the Lithuanians, who have so many unique ancient names and surnames in their collection.

Since in the XIV-XV centuries, during its heyday, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania actually owned half of the Russian lands, close administrative and cultural ties led to the spread in our country of names, words and expressions characteristic of the neighboring state. It is the surnames of Lithuanian origin that make up most similar Baltic borrowings. Residents of Pskov and Novgorod felt a particularly strong influence from their neighbors.

For example, in the north-west of Russia the surname Paskalov is found, derived from the nickname Pascal. The word paskala is translated from Lithuanian as “whip”. That is, this could be called a person with a sharp tongue, whose critical remarks are quite painful. And his descendants later received a surname derived from this nickname.

There is virtually no doubt that the ancestors of the Litvinovs, Litvins, Litvintsevs, Litovkins and Litvyakovs have corresponding roots.
The famous linguist Zigmas Zinkevicius, author of numerous scientific works on this topic, wrote that in XVI-XVII centuries representatives of the Lithuanian nobility often changed their surnames, adding the ending -skiy to them. To be called in imitation of the gentry (the privileged Polish class) was considered prestigious. Thus, the old Oginski family once owned the Uogintai estate, located on the territory of the Kaisiadorsky district. This is where the surname came from.

After Lithuania joined Russian Empire The process of forced Russification of this Baltic country began. In the 19th century, printing in the Latin alphabet was banned, and the Lithuanian language was transferred to the Cyrillic alphabet. Last names also changed. For example, Jonas Basanavičius was already listed in official documents as Ivan Basanovich. And after moving to Russia, the suffix -ich could well have disappeared from the surname of his descendants - here you have the Basanovs.

Many Lithuanians, after moving to St. Petersburg, Moscow or other cities in our country, did not want to differ from the bulk of the population, so they often changed their surnames. So, Kazlauskas became Kozlov, Petrauskas - Petrov, Yankauskas - Yankovsky, Vasiliauskas - Vasilyev, Zhukauskas - Zhukov, Pavlauskas - Pavlov, Kovaliauskas - Kovalev, Simonaitas - Simonov, Vytautas - Vitovsky, Shchegolevas - Shchegolev, Vilkas - Volkov or Vilkin, etc. P.

As a rule, surnames formed from similar names and nicknames were simply Russified. It was enough to replace the characteristic suffix -as with the traditional Russian ending-s. If the Lithuanian surname ended in -is, then during the “translation” they added -in to it. For example, the Lithuanian word “laukas” means a kind of “star” that appears on the forehead of various livestock: cows, oxen, horses. From this word the surname Lokis was formed (the diphthong “au” was transformed into one sound “o”), and on Russian soil the descendants of its bearer turned into the Lokins.

Representatives of the Lithuanian nobility, fleeing civil strife or in search of profit, often moved to Russia and entered the service of the Moscow kings. They became the founders of such ancient noble families as the Pronsky, Belsky, Glinsky, Khovansky, Mstislavsky, Khotetovsky.

The name has always been key to the image and character of a person. Each name had some designation or meaning. Sometimes the names given at birth did not correspond to the character or behavior of a person, and then some nickname was assigned to him, more clearly reflecting the essence human soul or appearance.

For example, Juodgalvis - black-headed (juodas - black + galva - head), Majulis (maћas - small), Kupryus (kupra - hump), Vilkas (vilkas - wolf), Jaunutis (jaunas - young)

Ancient Lithuanians most often identified themselves with a single personal name. But with the advent of Christianity and the formation Christian culture personal Lithuanian names formed the basis of Lithuanian surnames, and names at the baptism of infants were already given in accordance with Christian names. For example, in the contracts of that time such names were already found - “Pyatras Mantigirdas”, “Mikalojus Byliminas”.

According to their word formation, Lithuanian names are divided into 3 groups:

1. Single-base ones - those that are formed from one component of two-base personal names, with or without the addition of suffixes. For example, KAST –IS, KASTU –TIS, KAST-GAYLA.
2. Two-base names - consist of two bases or a combination of two names. As an example - MIN - DAUGAS, GEDI - MINas.
3. Monobasic ones, which were formed as nicknames or were formed from common nouns. For example, Lokis (lokis – bear) Audra (Audra – storm)

Lithuanian female names

Ancient Lithuanian names are very sonorous and poetic. They can mean celestial bodies, natural phenomena, or human qualities. Saule – sun, Jurate – sea maiden, Skaiste – pure, Danguole – heavenly; Gintaras - amber, Rasa - dew, Audra - storm, Aidas - echo, Linas - flax, or which are the names of rivers and places, such as Ula - Ula, Neringa - Neringa.

Lithuanian male names

Old Lithuanian male names had several bases.
Taut - people (Vytautas), kant - patient (Kantrus), min - thought (Gediminas), vil - hope, gail - regret (Yagaila)
By education, male names are mainly traditional Baltic names (Algirdas, Kestutis; Birute, Aldona) or Christian names adapted to the Lithuanian language and culture - Antanas - Anthony, Jurgis - George, Jonas - John, Povilas - Paul.

Lithuanian Surnames

Very interesting formation surnames in Lithuanian language.

Previously, women's surnames differed from men's only in the ending. For example, Raude - Raudis, Dyarkinte - Dyarkintas.

Now there is a suffix difference. Moreover, the formation of female surnames proceeds in two directions:
1 – Formation from the father’s surname. The suffixes used here are –ayt-, -ut-, -yut-, with the addition of the ending –e-.
Everyone famous surname Kristina Orbakaite, based on her father’s surname - Orbakas. Butkus - Butkute, Katilyus - Katilute.
2.- Formation from husband's surname for married women occurs with the help of completely different suffixes - en-, -uven-, -yuven- and plus the ending -e-.
An example is Varnas - Varniene, Grinius - Grinyuvienė.

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

Where did it all start?

Modern Lithuanian surnames are divided into two groups: those that were formed directly on the territory of Lithuania, as well as others that arose outside the country, but over time 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 Christianity came to the territory of the Baltic country at that time.

In the Middle Ages, church politics began to be actively pursued, and this also affected ancient Lithuania. In this regard, the imposition of Christian names begins, because Lithuanian, in fact, were pagan. As a result, in order not to lose their identity, the Lithuanians came up with surnames, which their ancient ancestral names turned into over time. At first they appeared only among representatives of wealthy families, but they came to the peasantry much later.

How did surnames come about?

Since the 16th century, the use of Latin language began to decline. In the 18th century, after the general census, village residents also began to have surnames, which began to be given to children by the name of their father, and, accordingly, this family name continued to pass from generation to generation. The suffix “-ovich”, “-evich” was added to the name.

In Russia, for example, the suffix “-ich” was given only to those who were close to the tsar and royal family, but in Lithuania they assigned it to everyone. The Lithuanian nobility did not like the sound of surnames like this: they saw the influence of Russia in this, so over time they began to actively change this suffix to the one that the Poles used - “-sky”. By the way, this prefix to the surname was also used East Slavs, but the difference was that the Poles relied specifically on local names. Let’s say a Pole lived in the village of Volya, and for this reason his surname became Volsky. However, it has been noticed that many Lithuanian surnames have Slavic suffixes and roots.

Meaning

The Lithuanian language has survived to this day almost unchanged, so it won’t be difficult to understand what this or that surname means. However, this is not always possible, and in some cases certain difficulties arise. What do Lithuanian surnames mean? For example, Leitis means that the ancestor who gave his family the name was once in the Leith service, that is, he served under the Grand Duke, Vilkas in translation sounds like “wolf”, with the surname Pilsudski - they once lived in the area of ​​​​Pilsudy. Gintautas means “protecting the people.”

Ancient Lithuanian personal names used to have two bases, and, as a rule, in translation they denoted any qualities of a person or words that carried deep meaning. The most popular of them were such as taut - people, min - thought, kant - patient, gail - regret, vil - hope.

The most popular Lithuanian surnames (male)

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

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

Original Lithuanian surnames

What do surnames with endings in “-aytis” and “-enas” mean? For example, such as Deimantas, Budrys, Petkevicius. They arose according to the following scheme: during the large census, the surname was given to the children by their father’s name. For example, the son of Vytas became Vytenas. But it should be noted that Lithuanians used such surnames only in colloquial speech. Officially, they were recorded in documents according to Slavic metrics.

Purely Lithuanian endings The surnames, therefore, are as follows: -aitis (Adomaitis), -is (alis), -as (Eidintas), and there may also be an ending -a (Radvila).

The influence of Slavic culture, and they are no longer natively Lithuanian.

Female surnames: rules of formation

If we consider modern female Lithuanian surnames, they have received a significant difference from male ones. They have the suffixes -ut-, -ayt-, and -yut-, the father's surname is displayed in the root, and the ending e- is often present. For example, male version A woman’s surname Butkus will already sound like Butkute, Orbakas turns into Orbakaite.

The surnames of married women already have slightly different differences from the one that the husband has. The husband will have the last name Varnas, and the wife will have Vernene. Thus, we see that the suffix -en is added, or, in some cases, -uven, -yuven, as well as the ending -e. It should be noted that the rules regarding education female version surnames, 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 on the territory of our country her surname will sound as if she lived in Lithuania. As you can see, there are many nuances here that you simply need to delve into.

Do surnames decline?

The Lithuanian language has a developed system case declension. Lithuanian surnames often end with the letter -s, but there are two options: either this letter is an integral part of it, or it simply indicates Nominative case. That is, in other cases, when declension, this very letter -s disappears. For example, the surname Landsbergis, in the genitive, 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 it. Female surnames, like men's. In the Latvian language everyone declines. But if they are used in Russian translation, then a different rule applies: for women they do not bow, but for men it’s the other way around.

Nuances in the difference

Let's look at an example popular surnames, how they will sound in two versions: male and female, thus, the same generic name among spouses sounds differently.

Kazlauskas - Kazlauskienė, Petrauskas - Petrauskienė, Jankauskas - Yankauskienė, Stankevičius - Stankevičienė, Vasiliauskas - Vasiliauskienė, Žukauskas - Žukauskienė, Butkus - Butkienė, Palauskas - Palauskienė, Urbonas - Urbonieniė, Kavaliauskas - Kavaliauskienė.

In the course of this article, we found out what surnames mean, and also figured out the history of their origin and how Lithuanian surnames are declined. They contain the richness of one of the Baltic languages, which is famous for the fact that it has survived to this day unchanged.