Your great-grandfather was called Jonas at home. In the baptism book he may be Joannes, Jan or Янъ, depending on the year and the priest. Lithuanian given names change faces from record to record, and unlike surnames, they change in a fairly predictable way. This guide explains the pattern for Lithuanian given names in the three main record languages, gives a conversion table drawn from the sources, and shows how to search for a person whose first name appears in more than one costume.
Why a first name has several faces
Most Lithuanian church books before 1918 were not written in Lithuanian. A Lithuanian-ancestry researcher summarizes the rule this way: in the Latin-language registers, the given names of all persons were Latinized, while in Polish-language registers the names were Polonized. In Russian-language records, the priest Polonized the name and then transliterated it into the Cyrillic alphabet, so a name may look Russified when it is actually a Cyrillic version of a Polish form. The researcher adds that it is typical practice for Lithuanian genealogists to translate these names back into the Lithuanian forms spelled in modern Lithuanian. The Lithuanian archive’s own guidance, which we cite in our church books guide, gives the periods when each language was used.
Occasionally the Russian form appears instead. The same researcher notes that a baptized child’s name usually appears as the Polish equivalent transliterated into Cyrillic, with Jonas as Jan and then Янъ, but that infrequently the name might be entered as the Russian equivalent, such as Ivan for Jonas.
A conversion table from the sources
The table collects the equivalents that the sources give. It is a starting list rather than a dictionary, because clerks varied, and we mark the source of each row.
| Lithuanian | Polish form | Other form seen | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jonas | Jan | Янъ in Russian-language records; Ivan, rarely | Lithuanian-ancestry researcher’s guide to Russian-era birth registers |
| Jurgis | Jerzy | Georgius in Latin; Юрий in a Russian example | The Lithuanian archive’s own examples, and a names database that lists Georgius, Jerzy and Jurgis together |
| Antanas | Antoni | Not given | A study of names in the Punskas region |
| Juozas | Józef | Not given | The same study |
| Ona | Anna | Not given | The same study |
| Vytautas | Witold | Not given | The same study |
| Birutė | Biruta | Not given | The same study |
The Punskas study also notes that names without a Polish equivalent were written using Polish letters, giving forms such as Wida, Dovile, Jokūbas and Ramūnas, so you may meet a Lithuanian name that looks only slightly changed. Where a Lithuanian name had no counterpart, the clerk simply wrote it as he heard it.
Two names for one baptism
Do not be surprised if a child has two given names. In the past, babies in the Punskas region were given two names, and one of them was a Christian name, for example Genė Ona or Kazimieras Sigitas, and the requirement of the Church to give Christian names influenced which names were popular. At present parents usually choose one name. In that region, family members used the Lithuanian forms, while the Polish ones were used in formal situations and when speaking to Polish-speaking people. In other words, the name in the register was the official name, and the name used at home may have been different.
A historical overview of Lithuanian surnames adds that most Christian baptism names are of Latin, Greek, Slavic or Hebrew origin and make up the majority of women’s names used in Lithuania today. It also notes that the Soviet period discouraged baptism and, with it, the giving of Christian and even national names. If your ancestor was born in the Soviet decades, expect a different pattern from a nineteenth-century baptism.
When one Lithuanian name has two English equivalents
Some conversions are ambiguous. A researcher who translates register entries notes that the Lithuanian Motiejus can stand for both the English Matthias and Matthew, and describes his own practice of using Motiejus only for names that are the equivalent of Matthias. Another point of practice is to avoid replacing the Lithuanian name with its English equivalent in a translation, because the person was actually known by the Lithuanian name. If you translate an entry yourself, record the original form as written, then your reading in Lithuanian, then the English equivalent as a note.
How to search for a person who has several first names
- Start from the Lithuanian form and list every Latin, Polish and Russian equivalent from the table above.
- Search a record set in the language it was written in, so a Polish-language book gets the Polish forms.
- Remember that Cyrillic forms may carry a hard sign at the end, as in Янъ, and that an index may drop it.
- Search by the parents’ names as well, since a mother and father can appear in the same records under their own variants.
- Add the village, which helps when a common name such as Jonas or Jurgis returns dozens of results.
Our guide to searching ePaveldas and FamilySearch explains which sites let you search by name and which only let you browse by parish.
A worked example, invented for illustration
Example (invented, for illustration only): A reader is looking for a man called Jurgis who was born about 1860. In the Latin-era books that might cover his parents’ marriage, she searches for Georgius. In the Polish-era books she searches for Jerzy. In the Russian-era baptisms of his children she searches for the Cyrillic forms, including Юрий, and she keeps Jurgis as her working name. When a baptism entry gives a child’s name as Jan, she checks the parents’ names before treating the child as a Jonas.
Names that are not Christian
Lithuanian also has older names of pre-Christian origin, and a general reference article says these are the most ancient layer of Lithuanian personal names, a majority of them with two stems. A historical overview says the introduction of Christianity interrupted their natural development. We did not find a source that lists which of them appear in nineteenth-century registers, so we do not give a table for them.
Using the names to connect generations
Given names are a useful check on a family. A child named after a grandparent, a godparent or a saint often repeats a name that is already in the tree, and the conversion table helps you see that the same name appears in two records. For the family-name side, see our surnames guide and our guide to spelling variants. For the women’s endings that often accompany these first names, see men’s and women’s surname forms.
Sources for this guide include a researcher’s page on the Polonization of Lithuanian names, the same researcher’s guide to Russian-language birth registers, a study of children’s names in the Punskas region, a historical overview of Lithuanian surnames and a reference article on Lithuanian names. The researcher’s site is a private one, so test its examples against your own records.
More guides are in Names & Surnames.
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