Lithuanian name

A Lithuanian personal name, like in mostly European cultures, consists of two main elements: the given name (vardas) followed by family name (pavardė). The usage of personal names in Lithuania is generally governed (in addition to personal taste or family custom) by three major factors: civil law, canon law, and tradition. Lithuanian names always follow the rules of the Lithuanian language. Lithuanian male names, as well as the rest of words, have preserved the Indo-European masculine endings (-as; -is), although the rules are not as rigid as Latvian names, which preserve masculine/feminine endings even for foreign names.

A child in Lithuania is usually given one or two given names. Nowadays the second given name is rarely used in everyday situations, the use of a middle name being considered pretentious. In addition to modern names, parents normally choose a name or names for their child from a long list of traditional names which may be:

It is the most ancient layer of Lithuanian personal names; a majority of them are dual-stemmed personal names, of Indo-European origin. These ancient Lithuanian names are constructed from two interconnected stems, the combination of which has been used to denote certain beneficial personal qualities, for example Jo-gaila mean "a strong rider". Although virtually extinct following the Christianization of Lithuania, they continued to exist as surnames, such as Goštautas, Kęsgaila, Radvila or in their Slavicised versions, as well as in toponyms. The existing surnames and written sources have allowed the reconstruction of names by linguists, such as Kazimieras Būga. During the Interbellum these names returned to popular use after a long period of neglect. Children are often named in honor of most revered historical Lithuanian rulers, making their names one of the most popular. They include Vytautas, Gediminas, Algirdas, Žygimantas. In line with the double-stemmed names, shorter variants containing only one stem were also used, such as Vytenis and Kęstutis. Since there are few pre-Christian female names attested in written sources, they are often reconstructed from male variants, in addition to the historical Birutė, Aldona, Rimgailė etc.

...
Wikipedia