Dar kartą apie lietuvių vardus
Lithuanian personal names revisted

Summary/Abstract: The paper sets out to discuss the new updated edition of Lietuvių vardų kilmės žodynas (Eng. 'An Etymological Dictionary of Lithuania Personal Names') by K.Kuzavinis and B.Savukynas and to shortly overview another publication dealing with personal names – Vardai: nuo A iki Ž (Eng. 'Names from A to Z'; compiled by N.Blaževičiūtė). The two publications differ in many aspects. The first publication has been prepared by language specialists. The names have been selected on the basis of tradition and developmental peculiarities of Lithuanian onomastics. All names have been entered in accordance with the language norm, all have stress and accentuation pattern indicated. In addition, all have scientifically well-grounded data on their origin and structure. The totality of names in the dictionary characterises the Lithuanian onomastics and discloses its unique Baltic features. The tradition and inevitable innovation go hand in hand. The dictionary has been obviously open to innovation. This has been attested by the names of Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian origin that have been entered in the updated edition. Names from other nations have been adapted in accordance with the phonological, phonetic, spelling and other equirements. All of these peculiarities have contributed to the dictionary's value – on many occasions it has been recommended as a reliable source of names. The second publication is also a kind of resource book for those who look for names. However, it fails to meet a single requirement for this type of works. The majority of names in the dictionary are not acceptable for Lithuanian onomastics, since they are against the tradition of its development and Baltic peculiarities. When discussing such very different publications, the paper, among other things, outlines the main requirements for the Lithuanian onomastics and major problems of its standardisation.

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