The study of the history of the emergence of the Lithuanian family name opens up forgotten pages of the life and culture of our ancestors and can tell a lot of interesting things about the distant past.
The surname Lithuanian belongs to the old type of Russian surnames, formed from a personal nickname.
The tradition of giving a person, in addition to the name received at birth, individual nickname, as a rule, reflecting some of its features, existed in Rus' since ancient times and persisted until the 17th century. Sometimes the nickname became an indication of the nationality or the native area of \u200b\u200bthe person. So, ancient documents mention Kiev voivode Kozarin (1106), Rostov Bishop Nikola Grechin (1185), landowner Ivashko Turchenin (1500), Filka Nemchin (1623), a resident of the Pyskor settlement on the Kama River, Vilna yard owner Yakov French (1643) and many others. Most often, such naming appeared when immigrants from different places and representatives different peoples. In addition, similar nicknames could be family tradition, for example, in the family of Rostovite Cheremisin (1471), children were habitually given ethnic names, he named his children Rusin and Meshcherin (1508), and Meshcherin's son was nicknamed Mordvin (1550).
The nickname Lithuanian also belongs to a number of similar nicknames. It must be said that in the old days, the ethnonyms "Lithuanian", "Litvin" were not called the inhabitants of modern Lithuania (in the old days they were called the principalities of Samogitia and Aukstaitsky), but the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which existed from the middle of the XIII century to 1795 on the territory of modern Belarus and Lithuania, and also partly in Ukraine, the western regions of Russia, Latvia, Poland and Estonia. At the same time, as a rule, representatives of the Belarusian people. Such nicknames in the old days were not uncommon. Ancient letters mention, for example, the princely boyar in Lithuania Roman Litvin (1466), the Novgorod peasant Ivashko Litvinko (1495), the Polotsk villager Andrey Litvin (1601), the resident of Novgorod Agafya Litovka (XIV century) and many others.
TO XVII century The most common model for the formation of Russian surnames was the addition of the suffixes -ov / -ev and -in to the base. By their origin, such surnames are possessive adjectives, formed from the name or nickname of the father, moreover, from the form that people around him used to call him. And in the Russian North and in some areas of the Chernozem region in late XVII century, a peculiar territorial variety of surnames has developed with the endings -ih / -s, and sometimes -s. Similar surnames in which the adjective is fixed in the genitive case plural, have the meaning “from the family of such and such”: the head of the family is a Lithuanian, family members are Lithuanian, each of them is from the Lithuanian family. In the central regions in early XVIII century, by decree of Peter I, the surnames were “unified” - the elements -ih / -s were excluded from them, which were preserved only in the northern and northeastern family names.
It is obvious that the name Lithuanian has an interesting centuries of history, testifying to the variety of ways in which Russian surnames appeared.
Sources: Nikonov V.A. Family geography. Tupikov N.M. Dictionary of Old Russian personal names. Unbegaun B.-O. Russian surnames. Veselovsky S.B. Onomasticon. Superanskaya A.V., Suslova A.V. Modern Russian surnames. Brockhaus and Efron. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
The surname Lithuanian in most cases has Polish origin and is formed either from Poland itself, or from neighboring states (Belarus, Ukraine). The overwhelming majority of representatives of the Lithuanian surname 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 indicates mainly the area where the distant ancestors of a person lived or locality, where, according to legend, this family comes from, however, the surname can also come from the name or nickname of a distant ancestor of a person. Also, in 29% of cases, this surname was given by the ancestor of the clergyman when he graduated from the seminary. In such cases, the surname was given at the behest of the leadership of the school and could be formed from the name of the area, church holiday, the name of the saint.
The surname Lithuanian is not very common in the regions of Russia and neighboring countries. In very old texts referring to noteworthy people with this surname were well-known figures from the Slavic Kievan boyars in the 15-16th century, having at their disposal a significant sovereign privilege. The first mention of the surname can be seen in the census book of All Rus' during the time of Ivan the Terrible. The sovereign had a special list of princely and bright surnames, which were given to relatives only in case of special merits or awards. Thus, the indicated surname retained its original meaning and is rare.
Surname spelling in Latin: LITOVSKIIY
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| Origin of the Lithuanian family | Information about the first name Litovchak |
| History of the Litovchenko family | The secret of the name Litovchik |
| Study of the surname Litomin | The meaning of the name Litonov |
| Where Does The Last Name Litorin Come From? | Family clan Litotik |
| Study of the surname Litochevsky | Early History of the Litoshenko family |
| origin of the surname Litoshik | Information about the name Litoshin |
| History of the Litre family | The secret of the name Litt |
| Study of the Littlewoods family | The meaning of the name Lituev |
| Where Does The Last Name Litunov Come From? |
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 a neighboring state. It is the surnames of Lithuanian origin that make up most similar Baltic borrowings. The inhabitants of Pskov and Novgorod felt a particularly strong influence of their neighbors.
For example, in the north-west of Russia, the surname Pascalov is found, formed from the nickname Pascal. The word paskala is translated from Lithuanian as "lash". That is, they could call a person with a sharp tongue, whose critical remarks are quite painful. And his descendants later received a surname formed from this nickname.
There is practically no doubt that the ancestors of the Litvinovs, Litvins, Litvintsevs, Litovkins and Litvyakovs have corresponding roots.
The famous linguist Zigmas Zinkevičius, author of numerous scientific works on this topic, wrote about the XVI-XVII centuries representatives of the Lithuanian nobility often changed their surnames, adding the ending -sky to them. To be called in imitation of the gentry (the privileged Polish class) was considered prestigious. Thus, the ancient Oginsky family once owned the Uogintai estate, located on the territory of the Kaishyadorsky district. That's where the surname came from.
After the accession of Lithuania to Russian Empire the process of forcible Russification of this Baltic country began. In the 19th century, printing in Latin was banned, and the Lithuanian language was transferred to Cyrillic. The 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 of 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, Vasilyauskas - Vasiliev, Zhukauskas - Zhukov, Pavlauskas - Pavlov, Kovalyauskas - Kovalev, Simonaytas - 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-ov. If the Lithuanian surname ended in -is, then -in was added to it during the “translation”. For example, the Lithuanian word "laukas" means a kind of "asterisk", which is found on the forehead of various livestock: cows, oxen, horses. From this word, the surname Lovkis was formed (the diphthong "au" was transformed into one sound "o"), and on Russian soil the descendants of its bearer turned into the Lovkins.
Representatives of the Lithuanian nobility, fleeing civil strife or in search of profit, often moved to Russia, entered the service of the Moscow tsars. They became the founders of such ancient noble families like Pronsky, Belsky, Glinsky, Khovansky, Mstislavsky, Khotetovsky.
I couldn’t sleep one night ... And I decided to google a list of the most common Lithuanian surnames.
Funny? Nothing funny.
The reason for this was the dispute that arose the day before with my friend and relative, the godfather of my son, Andrei Andrijauskas. Lithuanian, as the surname implies.
So. We somehow hooked on the Lithuanian language, Lithuania is still nearby, we travel sometimes ... Andrey said that, regardless of the origin, "well, he can't learn this damned language." And I, on the contrary, noticed that ".. how is it, the languages are kindred, of course, nothing is clear at first, but it is very easy to learn, the roots of the words are mostly the same Slavic, it is remembered at a time .." To which Andrey, bulging his eyes, declared that this is a Scandinavian (!!!) group of languages, which has nothing in common with continental European (especially with Slavic), the language is the most ancient and incomprehensibly mysterious.
Neither my exhortations, nor Google to the contrary, nor his nor my brother's wife (also Lithuanian) convinced him. They stand their ground and that's it!
Well, you have probably heard how stubborn Lithuanians are ..
Therefore, I declared in my hearts ".. Andrijauskas is Andriyavsky with a typical Belarusian "long-y" and the replacement of an unstressed vowel ending with a proprietary Lithuanian "-as, -is." And this surname cannot be Lithuanian (eats-but), but and Polish, because the Poles replace the "r" before the vowel with "-zh-, -sh-", and there is a typical Belarusian. 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 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 the names. The fact remains - no matter how much you change the ending, the source of the formation of the surname is obvious. So "Mamedov" does not automatically become Russian at all.
Does this mean that there are no Lithuanian surnames? Against. The country is rich in original surnames and names. Only Lithuanians have about 3 thousand proper names. This is a lot. But these prevail. It is a fact.
And why?
History, guys, look at history.
PS: I want to say separately about the Lithuanian language. I like this language. And I like it precisely with that archaic antiquity, from which it breathes Sanskrit and Old Slavonic. This language is a monument. And no Latvian, also included in the subgroup, stands next to it. This language must be protected. And I am in favor with both hands - let the young country, which is essentially re-creating a nation today, choose this unique ancient language for your future. But just do not rewrite the past. Just go to the museum and see what language all the documents and laws of ancient Lithuania are written in. One can be proud of this past.
After all, without a past, we have no roots. And without roots, the content will sooner or later become dry.
