On the Origin of the Oikonym Joskildai

Abstract

The history of the village of Joskildai, located in the Ramygala eldership of the Panevėžys District Municipality, and the origin of its name have so far received little attention from historians and toponymists. Historical research has noted that this settlement was long part of the Ramygala parish. In the 1784 visitation documents, it is documented as the property of Straševičius. It is also mentioned that Joskildai formerly functioned as a filia of the Ramygala parish and possessed a wooden chapel, which was relocated to Anciškis in 1846, as the Straševičius family was no longer able to maintain it. In explaining the origin of the village name, only general considerations have been offered concerning its connection with the possible compound personal name *Jos-kildas. The available fragmentary facts suggest the need for a more detailed investigation and a more substantiated interpretation of the etymology of this oikonym, which displays an interesting structural composition.
Data recorded from local inhabitants quite reliably confirm the authenticity of the form Joskildai, as no alternative phonetic variants have been provided. The only variation observed concerns accentuation: in the early twentieth century and in 1973, the stress fell on the first syllable, whereas around 1935 it was placed on the ending. An analysis of records in historical sources shows that this name was already in use in the second half of the seventeenth century, as evidenced in the Upytė Land Court Book (w jednym siolku nazwanym Jeskiłdach, ze wsi Jaskildow). Subsequently, it was frequently recorded in the registers of Ramygala Church from the second half of the eighteenth century (De Jaskiłdy, de Jaskiłdy, Jaskiłdy, Joskiłdy, de Joskiłdy) as well as in other (non-religious) documents (Wies Jaskiłdy, Jaskildy, Jaskiłdzie, Jaskiłdy, Jaskiłdany, Яскилды). A study of the early and later records indicates that they reflect the present-day form, which can be regarded as authentic and not subject to any graphic, phonetic, or structural transformations. It should not be ruled out that in the second half of the nineteenth century a suffixal variant of this onym may have developed: *Joskildonys or *Joskildoniai.
A structural analysis of the village name, the anthroponymic context of the area, and the trends in the formation of Lithuanian settlement names allow for the formulation of a hypothesis that the name originated from an unattested, no longer used, compound personal name *Jos-kildas in the plural form. The stem Jos- is widely recognised and unquestionable (cf. Jós-butas, Jós-vydas, Jós-vilas, etc.) and was historically used within the territory of occurrence of the oikonym Joskildai (Ясвилович, Ясвиланис, Ясвилаитис, Ясвилонис). In this area, surnames containing the element kild- (Kildà, Kildišas) and historical personal names (Миколая Килдишя) have also been recorded. Therefore, anthroponyms with Kild- may not be appellative in origin, but rather may be derived from the shortened forms *Kilda and *Kildis of the compound personal name *Jos-kildas. The hypothesis that the oikonym originated from a compound personal name is further supported by the Old Prussian onomastic context: the recorded settlement name Pol. Kildajny, Ger. Kildhenen ← OPr. *Kildain-ai, which may have derived from an anthroponym with the root Kild-.
The available data on the development of the oikonym Joskildai do not indicate any essential changes in its form. Therefore, it would be difficult to propose an alternative version for its origin, i.e., one not deriving from a compound personal name. Consequently, this may represent yet another Lithuanian settlement name from which a no-longer-attested compound personal name can be reconstructed.