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Archiver > LITHUANIA > 2003-06 > 1054835977


From: David Zincavage <>
Subject: [LITHUANIA-L] Fw: Lithuanian Onomastics
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2003 10:59:44 -0700


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Zincavage" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 10:19 AM
Subject: Re: Lithuanian Onomastics


> The use of Stanislaw, and other traditional Slavic personal names, by
> peasants would be just like the later use of Vytautas and Kestutis and
> Mindaugas as personal names by non-armigerous Lithuanians. Obviously
these
> names were not used by peasants in the actual period in which these names
> were originally being created.
>
> Lithuania in the 13th and 14th century was not just like America today.
For
> one thing, Lithuania prior to 1386 (and during a transition period lasting
> some time) existed in a religious and cultural context of her own, outside
> European civilization. The pagan Lithuanians used personal names created
in
> their own linguistic context. The Lithuanian noble convert received a
> Christian name upon baptism, e.g Witold became Alexander, Jogailo
Wladyslaw,
> and so on. A standard practice in the early 15th century became for the
> earlier pagan personal name to be used first as a modifier, then as a
> surname. Thus, Daugelas, son of Jaunutis, palatine of Trakai, becomes
John
> Dowgaillo. His son Narbutas becomes Andrzej Narbut.
>
> Lithuanian non-armigers did not acquire the custom of using fixed surnames
> until significantly later dates: generally in the 17th century, in some
> cases even as late as the 18th century. By the mid-15th century, with a
few
> minor exceptions consisting of the names of certain national heroes, the
use
> of those two root Lithuanian language personal names had been eliminated
by
> Christianization and the Church's insistence on the use of saints' or
> Biblical names. Thus it is generally appropriate to infer that
patronymic
> surnames based upon those sorts of names refer to protoplasts who
flourished
> prior to the middle of the 15th century. Only armigerous families
possessed
> fixed heritable surnames at that period, so...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Leon Stevens" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 9:48 AM
> Subject: RE: Lithuanian Onomastics
>
>
> > > very mighty <
> >
> > Prior to Horodlo, Lithuanian didn't officially distinguish between
> > nobles and peasants any more than Americans do today, in spite of the
> > fact that in both cases there was a defacto aristocracy owing to the
> > fact that certain individuals succeeded in accumulating wealth and
> > power. The meanings of surnames have nothing to do with social class.
> > There are thousands of people of peasant stock named "krol" ("king") for
> > example, while many nobles selected humiliating nick-names ("przydomki")
> > for themselves, such as "Kapusta" ("cabbage") or "Kiszka" ("blood
> > sausage"). The old Slavic two-part name "Stanislaw" meaning "Glory will
> > prevail" is used by noble and serf alike, whether or not the individual
> > is in fact glorious.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

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