Lithuanian surnames in Russian. Origin of Lithuanian surnames

Below are female surnames common in Lithuania:

1. Orbakajte;
2. Kaulakienė;
3. Kairyte;
4. Adamkute;
5. Tomkute;
6. Kubiliute;
7. Varnane;
8. Zilinska;
9. Kazlauska;
10. Butkevica

Men's

Below are male surnames common in Lithuania:

1. Kazlauskas;
2. Petrauskas;
3. Jankauskas;
4. Stankevicius;
5. Vasiliauskas;
6. Zukauskas;
7. Butkevicus;
8. Paulauskas;
9. Urbonas;
10. Kavaliauskas.

Beautiful surnames

Lithuanian surnames are quite sonorous and pleasant to the ear. The most beautiful surnames are those that personify any positive traits person. Or surnames with a special meaning. For example: Gintaus - “protecting the people” or Vilkas - “wolf”.

Alphabetical list in photo

Names

On this moment There are approximately 3,000 native Lithuanian names with their own meaning.

Women's

Below are the most common female names in Lithuania:

1. Roger - “rose”;
2. Alge – “angel”;
3. Vitalia – “vital”;
4. Yumante – “insightful”;
5. Ramute – “quiet”;
6. Laime – “goddess of life”;
7. Audra – “storm”;
8. Gintare – “yanatra”;
9. Ramune – “daisy”;
10. Egle - “spruce”.

Most popular names for girls in Latvia there are such names as: Emilia (“impatient”), Ieva (the name is derived from the name Eva and is translated as “life-giver”), Yurte (the name has many interpretations, the most popular is “great desire”).

Men's

Below are the most common male names in Lithuania:

1. Antanas – “invaluable”;
2. Majulis – “small”;
3. Lokis – “bear”;
4. Linas – “flax”;
5. Azuolas – “oak”;
6. Aivaras – “beautiful as the moon”;
7. Vilkas – “wolf”;
8. Andrius – “courageous”;
9. Marius – “man”;
10. Jurgis - "peasant".

For boys, parents choose the following names: Matas ( given name is a derivative of the name Matvey, meaning “gift to God”), Noyus (“peace”), Lucas (“bright”).


Beautiful names

Common in Lithuania a large number of beautiful names. For example: Raymondas (“wise protector”), Rasa (“dew”), Gabia (“goddess of fire”), etc. Read about the features of Latvian cuisine and where you can try it.

Names of Lithuanian princes

Lithuanian princes have great importance for the people. At the moment, parents still name their children after past rulers.

For example:

1. Kestutis – “enduring”;
2. Gedeminas – “protected by the Lord”;
3. Radvila - “who found hope”;
4. Vytautas – “leader of the people”;
5. Yogaila - “horseman”.

Meaning and origin

If surnames contain the suffixes -enas, -aytis, then this indicates belonging to some ancestor (literally “son”). The suffix -skiy indicates the place of origin of the genus.

Lithuanian women's surnames have this peculiarity - in Russian they are not declined even during transcription. This rule does not apply to male Lithuanian surnames. In addition, by the surname suffix you can always understand whose surname a woman bears – her father’s or her husband’s. In this case, the suffixes -ut are added to the father's surname; -yut; -it. In addition, at the end of each female surname there must be an -e, which indicates that the surname belongs to a woman.

Suffixes such as -en are added to the root of the husband's surname; - less often; -uven; -juven.

Currently, women have the right not to use these suffixes to form a surname.

Examples of female Lithuanian names and surnames:

1. Orbakaite (surname);
2. Egle – “spruce”;
3. Laima is the “goddess of life.”

Most male first and last names end in -s.


Examples of male Lithuanian names and surnames:

1. Vytautas – “leader of the people”;
2. Antanas (the name comes from the Christian “Anthony”) - “invaluable”;
3. Kazlauskas (surname).

Initially there was a nickname Zan. “Zan” has two translation options: “to enter” and “to go out.” In the first case, Zan could be called a person who was good guest and who was always welcome in the house. In the second case, the nickname “Zan” most likely had a protective function for a person. There was such a belief. that the worse the meaning of a nickname or name, the better the life of its owner will be. Subsequently, the suffix “-ko” was added to “Zan”, thereby forming a surname with the meaning “son of Zan”.

The surname Chipak, like many others, was derived from a family nickname. According to the etymology of the word, it originally meant “to cling to, to grasp.” Thus, we can conclude that the nickname Chipak was given to a person who “won’t miss what he has.”

There is also another version of the meaning of this surname. It is believed that the surname Chipak was derived from a verb meaning “to comb wool, flax.”

Thus, the meaning of the surname may be professional activity person.

The name Casio comes from the family name Kasianus, which in turn comes from the name Kasius.

It is not uncommon for Lithuanian surnames to have a zero ending. As a rule, these surnames are female.

In Lithuania, as in Russia, they are popular christian names. However, according to the structure and characteristics of the language, names change their form slightly.

For example:

1. Anton – Antanas (“invaluable”);
2. Pavel – Povilas (“small”);
3. Georgiy – Jurgis (“farmer”);
4. John – Jonas (“blessing of the Lord”);
5. Andrey – Andrius (“defender”).

How do they bow?

Regardless of whether the surname refers to feminine or masculine, it is still declined, like all nouns in the Lithuanian language. Declension, as in Russian, is carried out by changing the ending.

In Russian, only male surnames are declined, while female surnames, as a rule, remain unchanged. Many Lithuanian surnames can be translated literally into Russian, but it would be correct to translate them using transcription. This method is the most reliable when transferring a surname from one language to another.

Translation of female names and surnames into Russian:

1. Antulienė - Antulene;
2. Raude - Raude;
3. Grinyuvene - Grinyuvene.

Translation of male names and surnames into Russian:

1. Jankauskas - Januskas;
2. Kavaliauskas - Kavaliauskas;
3. Butkevičus - Butkevicius.

Video

Watch the video with which letters to write Lithuanian first names and last names:

Lithuanian names and surnames are in many ways similar to the names and surnames of other countries that are located in the neighborhood of Lithuania. However, they also have their own flavor and their own specifics in the formation and declination of surnames. Original Lithuanian names, in turn, are gradually disappearing, making way for more modern, foreign names.

Nov 17, 2015 Tatiana Sumo

In Lithuania, it is customary to be proud of your surnames. Sometimes the explanation of their origin takes on completely fantastic versions. It’s much simpler, for example, with Koshkinaite: her mother is Koshkinene, her father is Koshkinas, but actually they are Koshkins. Or my favorite singer Shchegolevite: mom - Shchegolevene, dad - Shchegolevas” - from the word “schegol”.

There are many similar examples that can be given, but we will not talk about them, since these are newly formed surnames. It is much more interesting to trace the origin of the surnames of people who have lived here for centuries.

Our interlocutor is Zigmas ZINKEVICIUS, a famous Lithuanian philologist who worked as director of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was the Minister of Education of Lithuania, and the author of more than 60 books. Recently, by the way, his next book “Surnames of Polish-speaking Vilnius” (“Vilnijos lenkakalbių pavardės”) was published.

The origin of the surnames of Lithuanian citizens is integrally connected with the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), so we will constantly return to it. Let's start with the following.

In the Middle Ages, not only in Lithuania, but in all European countries, and even beyond its borders, the language of the state chancellery was not colloquial of one or another people who created the state, and inherited from the languages ​​of the ancient eras of those regions. For example, in countries Western Europe that was Latin language, it was also the official written language of Poland until the end of the 14th century, that is, before Jogaila came to power there, and even, one might say, until the middle of the 16th century.

IN Eastern Europe This function was performed by the so-called Old Church Slavonic language, and since it was first used in church affairs, we call it the Church Slavonic language.” Then in Kievan Rus it, with the addition of local Slavic elements, became a written state language.

Before the arrival of Peter I in Rus', it was said that “one must speak Russian and write in Slavic.” Due to the fact that in the Middle Ages the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded its borders up to the Black Sea and the Moscow region, it used two written languages: Latin was used to communicate with the West, Old Church Slavonic - with the East. During the time of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, there were many elements from Ukraine, from the Lutsk region, since the princely scribes most likely came from there. Later, more and more elements of the Belarusian language began to appear in it, but it did not become either Ukrainian or Belarusian language, preserving the entire grammatical structure of Church Slavonic.

An interesting excursion into history, but how is it related to the origin of surnames?

First things first. Lithuanian nobles began to acquire surnames with the advent of Christianity in Lithuania at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, but only a small part acquired them, and mostly surnames spread among the nobility at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries.

What does "surname" mean? Heritage! Heritage, that is, belonging to one specific family. The people, the villagers in Lithuania, did not have surnames until late XVIII century, when they were finally approved by the general census of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the issuance of passports. For example, someone’s name was Peter - his son became Petrovich, and his children received the same surname. And this is no coincidence: since the 16th century, the Church Slavonic language established itself in Lithuania as the state clerical language, and the use of Latin decreased.

Let me give you an example: during the time of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Žigimantas Augustas, four and a half times more documents were written in Slavic than in Latin. That’s why during the population census they didn’t pay attention to a person’s nationality or what language he spoke: they simply added the suffixes “-ovich” and “-evich” to the names of fathers. It should be especially noted that on the territory of Poland the Poles did not have such a suffix; they had the suffixes “-owitz”, “-jevic”, which were preserved in the names of cities, for example, Katowice.

Surnames with the suffixes “-ovich” and “-evich” came to Poland in connection with the annexation of the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Poland. Important point, which interested me very much: the fact is that these suffixes “-ovich”, “-evich” are complex, consisting of “-ov”, “-ev” and “-ich”. In Muscovy, that is, before the emergence Russian Empire, “-ich” meant belonging to royal family or the nobility closest to the tsar: Petrovich, Orlovich, Yuryevich, etc.

In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, during the census, the opposite happened: the suffix “-ich” was given to everyone, regardless of origin.

Then the following happened: over time, the Lithuanian nobility began, let’s call the process so, “Polishing”, they began to look at surnames with the endings “-ovich”, “-evich”, believing, however, rightfully, that they came to Lithuania from Russia. In addition, these suffixes were foreign to the Poles, and the Lithuanian nobility began to massively change the suffixes “-ovich”, “-evich” to the suffix “-sky”. For example, there was Petrovich - he became Petrovsky, and Orlovich - Orlovsky, and so on.

However, I want to note: the suffix “-sky” also existed in Eastern Slavs, and among the Poles, but the difference is that for a long time in Poland the suffix “-sky” was used to create surnames from local names. To make it clearer: some Volsky definitely comes from the Polish village of Volya, and the surname Petrovsky definitely comes from the name Peter - this surname does not particularly “smell” of Polish, but was “seen” from the fashion that existed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at that time.

How can you explain the origin of the names of very rich, famous Lithuanian nobles: Radvil, Sapieha, Oginsky?

- “Radvila” - typically Baltic Lithuanian given name, consisting of two basic roots. Everything is clear here. According to the research of our historians, the Sapiehas descended from a certain Semyon, who was the clerk of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Kazimiras - this is the middle of the 15th century, he came to Lithuania from the Smolensk lands. Slavic philologists do not have a unanimous opinion about the origin of the surname Sapega: someone sees and Turkish origin, because in those days the Mongol-Tatars had enormous influence in those parts.

The Oginski family is an old one (I will not bother readers with unnecessary information about their historical services to Lithuania, all this already belongs to history, but I just want to mention the well-known and famous “Oginski Polonaise”). The ancestor of the family is the grandson of the Smolensk appanage prince Vasily Glushina - Dmitry Glushonok. In 1486 Grand Duke the Lithuanian gave him the Uogintai estate, which is located on the territory of the modern Kaisiadorsky district, and, of course, if you wish, you can hear the correspondence between the name of the courtyard and again educated surname.

All over the world, Lithuanians are called “Labas”, well, this is understandable: from the word “labas” - “hello”. However, their belonging to the Lithuanian nation is also determined by the ending of their surnames with “-s”: Deimantas, Budrys, Petkevičius - there are millions of them. When did they appear?

No one knows. In the old days, the suffixes “-aytis”, “-enas”, etc. they determined whose son it was: for example, Baraitis is the son of Baras, Vytenas is the son of Vitas. Lithuanian surnames have been found in lists of estate servants since the 16th century. However, I want to especially emphasize: Lithuanians used Lithuanian surnames only in oral speech, in official documents the same surnames were written in the Slavic manner until the beginning of the 20th century. For example, the Lithuanian patriarch, the most famous Lithuanian Jonas Basanavičius, was recorded in the metrics as Ivan Basanovich, since in tsarist times it could not have been any other way, since all metrics were done in Russian! In general, it should be noted that the totality of Christian proper names is mainly international.

The oldest layer is the biblical names of the Hebrew language, then comes the Greek layer, Latin, Germanic, etc. - Adams, Solomons, Alexanders, Anatolias, Germans, Georges, and so on. That is why these names do not and cannot show nationality. For example, if the name Victor is recorded in written documents from the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then its bearer could be a Pole, a Lithuanian, or a representative of another nation. The nationality of the conditional Victor can only be established if some suffix was added to him.

For example, if the diminutive form “-el” was added to the name Victor, then the typically Lithuanian name Viktorelis was obtained.

The area around Vilnius is entirely populated by Poles, that is, people who bear Polish surnames and speak Polish. I have heard more than once that they have been living here since ancient times, or at least for a very, very long time. They say that the Polish lords brought their serfs here and thus settled the Vilnius region.

No, no and NO! This is absolutely not how things happened. Scientists have long established that in large areas in the forested part of Central Europe - from Moscow to the Vistula River and even further - the oldest hydronyms, that is, the names of rivers and lakes, are of Baltic origin. Therefore, there is no doubt that a certain Baltic language was spoken in this vast territory.

The Slavs appeared there relatively recently, somewhere around

VI century AD. The Lithuanians lived here for more than two thousand years, one might say, in isolation, and only they from the Baltic massif created a state.

The roads of the Poles and Lithuanians did not intersect - they were separated by the Baltic tribe of the Yatvingians. And only after the crusaders destroyed them, the Poles and Lithuanians began to look for each other. Only then!

The Polish language began to penetrate into Lithuania at the end of the 14th century under the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila, who became the Polish king. At that time, Lithuanian nobles “won back” the law, which was written into the Statute: people from the Kingdom of Poland do not have the right to buy land in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania! The only way to acquire land is to marry a Lithuanian woman, and this position was strictly adhered to until the end of the 18th century, until the disappearance of the united state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth! And we are, of course, not talking about common people, but only about the nobles Polish surnames- commoners were serfs then. So this is a myth - they say that the Poles settled the Vilnius region: there was a “Polishing” of the local people through schools and - especially - churches, in which teaching and services were conducted in Polish.

The common people in the Vilnius region began to speak Polish only at the end of the last quarter of the XIX century - all the villages around Vilnius were Lithuanian! Many Poles from Poland came to Vilnius and the Vilnius region at a time when the city and region belonged to Poland - in 1921-1939.

Now we move on to the most fundamental things. When scientists “removed” the Polish and - in general - Slavic layer from the surnames of people speaking Polish in the Vilnius region, that is, phonetics and suffixes acquired from the clerical Old Church Slavonic language - 100% very beautiful personal Lithuanian names remained. That is modern surnames Vilnius Poles are created from former Lithuanian names. And here’s what’s interesting: these personal names, by their meaning, indicate the former past greatness of the ancient Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Mr. Zinkevicius, your statements will not particularly please the Poles living in Lithuania!

I have devoted more than sixty years to science and I am responsible for my words, since I operate only with facts. Let's say the names of officials of the ON. In those days there were no telephones, radio, television and extremely important role couriers, envoys, and heralds played. They were called differently, personal names were used, from which surnames were later derived. For example, Shavkalo, Shavkolovsky, look: if we discard the suffixes, we will see the word “shaukalas”, and in the ancient Lithuanian language it defined the person who “shaukola” - announced the will of the Grand Duke. Or Begunovich, from the word “begunas” - a person who runs fast. Let's take the surnames Leitovich, Leitovsky, Leith, Leitis.

Yeah, from the word “Lithuanian”!

But no: in the clerical state Lithuanian language we find the word “leiti”, it meant a certain social stratum of people of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who were engaged in the so-called “leitian service”. They obeyed only the Grand Duke and looked after the prince's military horses. And names settlements Lajčiai and Lajčiai also take us back to ancient times. So the given Polish surnames reflect the social stratum that once existed, let’s call them privileged grooms. And there are many such examples, I have mentioned only a few. Or here’s another: surnames created from the names given at birth. They came to Lithuania in two ways - from Byzantium through Kievan Rus and from the West through the German lands: the Germans christened the Czechs, the Czechs christened the Poles, and the Poles christened us, Lithuanians. They retain elements of “intermediaries”. For example, the name Vasily came to us from Byzantium, since it has Greek origin, meaning "royal". However, the same name, which came to us from the West, is pronounced "Basilius", since the letter "s", according to German phonetics, turned into a "z". The most interesting thing: the surnames of Poles in the Vilnius region, derived from the names given at birth, mostly have roots from Byzantium rather than from Poland, which means a special influence on this region of Kievan Rus.

From the same Vasily came the Vasilevskys, Vasilkovskys, Vasilevichs, etc. And from Basilius - one or two surnames that came from Poland, for example, Bazilevich.

The parents of the current President of Poland Komorowski are from Lithuania...

The etymology of this surname is unclear, since it is unclear when and where they came from to Lithuania. Perhaps their ancestors in tsarist times could have moved to Lithuania from the Polish hinterland and bought land here, since in those days Polish nobles were allowed to purchase it in Lithuania. I'll give you an example of more interesting fact origin of one very famous surname. We are talking about a poet, laureate Nobel Prize Czeslaw Milosz. He comes from a village located in Panevėžys County. I myself visited there several times with the poet, since I knew him well. It’s curious: his neighbors called him not Milos, but Milasius, that is, they used an older form of the surname, and then it became “Polished.”

I'll bring you interesting fact: a statement written by him in 1941 addressed to the rector of Vilnius University, Professor Konchius, has been preserved. Then the Vilnius region was annexed to Lithuania, and part of Kaunas University was “moved” to Vilnius. So, in that statement, Milosz asks the rector to issue a certificate listing the subjects he studied at the university, since, apparently, he did not finish it, and signed: “Czeslav Milasius”, and at the bottom, in parentheses, wrote: “Milosz”. You see, he, like Marshal J. Pilsudski, dreamed of reviving the disappeared state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth within the old borders and considered himself its citizen.

But Pilsudski is also from Lithuania! Where did this surname come from?

I'll tell you an almost anecdotal incident. After the war, a discussion broke out in Polish newspapers about the origin of the Pilsudski surname; there were many versions, even fantastic ones. Wojciech Smoczynski, my student, came to us at Vilnius University to study from Poland. Apparently, he was “sick” of this controversy, and he wrote an article on this topic. After all, everything is very simple: the surname Pilsudski comes from the word “Pilsudy”, which denoted an area in Samogitia, once there was a manor there, but now three small villages have survived. The Pilsudskis are from there: “Pilsudy” plus the suffix “-ski”, which determines their place of residence. Moreover: his grandfather’s surname is originally Lithuanian - Ginetas! But due to the fact that the whole family came from Pilsud, the Pilsudski surname stuck, then they moved to Vilnius, where the future marshal was born.

A quick question: where does Lokis, a very common surname among Poles in the Vilnius region, come from, as well as the surname of the genius Lithuanian artist- Ciurlionis and the great Lithuanian basketball player - Sabonis?

It’s easy to answer: the surname Lokis is undoubtedly Lithuanian origin. The fact is that the Slavs did not have the diphthong “au”, and therefore it was transformed into “ov”. The surname Lovkis comes from the ancient Lithuanian word “laukas” - that’s what they called white star on the forehead of a cow, a bull. And Čiurlionis is the son of Čiurlis, Sabonis comes from the name Sebastianas, abbreviated Sabas, that is, Sabonis is the son of Sabas (from Sebastian).

Interviewed by Romuald SILEVICH,

From the editor. The published material may cause mixed assessments. And that's great! But “Review” in this situation would like to especially emphasize that we will publish only those responses and comments that do not offend the opponent, but contribute to clarifying the truth and encourage us all to be more attentive to our roots.

Since in XIV-XV centuries, in 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 surnames of Lithuanian origin that make up the majority of such Baltic borrowings. Especially strong influence residents of Pskov and Novgorod felt 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 the annexation of Lithuania to the 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, like Pronsky, Belsky, Glinsky, Khovansky, Mstislavsky, Khotetovsky.

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 the feminine gender. 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 rare cases - the suffixes - uven and juven, as well as the 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 adding the surname and first name of the father 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 receive 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 of Lithuanian origin, and 70 percent are not.
In ancient times, women's names differed mainly in their gender endings. 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 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.
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.