Lithuanian surname. Lithuanian names

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, Lithuania has established itself, but the use of the 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 Eastern 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 some qualities of a person or words that carried a 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.

The purely Lithuanian endings of surnames, therefore, are the following: -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, the male version of the surname Butkus in a woman will already sound like Butkute, Orbakas turns into Orbakaite.

Surnames 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 the formation of a female version of a surname apply 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 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. 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.

The surname Litovsky in most cases is of Polish origin and is formed either from Poland itself or from neighboring countries (Belarus, Ukraine). The overwhelming majority of representatives of the Litovsky family belonged to the Polish gentry. In 10% percent, the bearer of the surname is possibly a descendant of an ancient Russian princely or boyar family. But in both cases, the surname mainly indicates the area where the person’s distant ancestors lived or the settlement where, according to legend, this family comes from, however, the surname can also come from the name or nickname of a person’s distant ancestor. Also, in 29% of cases this surname was given by an ancestor clergyman when he graduated from the seminary. In such cases, the surname was given at the will of the school leadership and could be formed from the name of the locality, church holiday, or the name of a saint.

The surname Litovsky belongs to the category of not very common throughout Russia. In the available interesting chronicle materials, people with this surname were famous figures from the Russian Vladimir clergy in the 17th-18th centuries, who had certain power and honors. The first mention of the surname can be seen in the census of All Rus' during the time of Ivan the Terrible. The king kept a special list of noble and euphonious surnames, which were given to loved ones only in case of praise or encouragement. Therefore, the specified surname conveys a personal, unique designation and is exceptional..

Spelling the surname in Latin: LITOVSKIIY

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 (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 of surnames in the 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 the 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.

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!
Well, you've probably heard how stubborn Lithuanians can be...

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 the Poles replace the “r” before the 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 beginning of its polonization. And in general - look at the Lithuanian words and then at the 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. This is a fact.
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.

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 Church Slavonic language established itself in Lithuania, but the use of the 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 the royal family, but in Lithuania it was assigned 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 by the Eastern 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 some qualities of a person or words that carried a 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.

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

In such endings as -auskas, -evichyus, -inskis, which translated into Russian will sound like -ovich, -evich, -ovski, -evski, -ski, the influence of Slavic culture can be traced, and they are no longer originally 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, the male version of the surname Butkus in a woman 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 the formation of a female version of a surname apply 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 case declension system. 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 the 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. Women's surnames are the same as 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 the example of popular surnames, how they will sound in two versions: male and female, thus, the same family 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.