Male Personal Names in the 1813–1814 Church Register of Births of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Radviliškis

Abstract

The analysis of nineteenth-century personal names in Radviliškis parish was accomplished by selecting personal names from the church register of births of 1786–1798 and 1813–1814 periods. From the period of 1786–7188, 150 names of baptised boys, 292 names of fathers, and 302 names of godfathers, as well as 588 male surnames were selected. The period of 1813–1814 was represented by 199 names of baptised boys, 281 names of fathers, and 307 names of godfathers and by the surnames of 581 males. The analysis of the 1786–1798 period showed that adults were identified by a binomial personal name consisting of a name and a surname. Male names have Latin, Slavic, Germanic, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, Latvian and Celtic origin. At baptism, the boys were usually given the names of Latin origin. Their fathers mainly had names of Hebrew origin, and godfathers – names of Latin origin. We analysed 588 male names: 103 names had Slavic patronymic suffixes, 28 surnames Lithuanian suffixes, and 307 surnames had no clear suffixes, which allowed assigning them to any of the categories mentioned above. The analysis of the 1813–1814 period revealed that adults were identified by a binomial personal name – a name and a surname. The baptised children were given monomial names. We found 44 different names of boys, 48 different names of fathers, and 47 different names of godfathers in the analysed source and divided them by their origin. Latin names made the largest part of the male names. We found many names of Greek, Hebrew, and Germanic origin. The 588 male surnames located in the records were grouped by the available suffixes: 158 surnames had Lithuanian suffixes, 118 surnames had a Slavic suffix -sk, and 86 surnames had the Slavic patronymic suffixes -owicz, -ewicz; 186 surnames had no suffixes. This study aimed to encourage further research into the anthroponymy of Radviliškis. Hopefully, not only registers of birth will be analysed, but also other ecclesiastical books containing records essential for the study of personal names.