It is twenty years ago today that the United States recognized the independence of the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the former USSR.
Seems like a good opportunity to take a look at what people are calling their babies in the Baltics!
Lithuanian and Latvian are closely related languages — both belong to the Baltic family. Linguists regard Lithuanian as the modern language which most closely resembles Proto-Indo-European.
Estonian, meanwhile, is a Finnic language, related — oddly enough — to Finnish.
Lithuania’s top ten in 2010 was as follows:
Girls:
- Emilija — Emilia/Emily
- Gabija — Lithuanian Goddess of fire
- Ugnė — ‘fire’
- Austėja — Lithuanian Goddess of bees
- Urtė — uncertain. Possibly Lithuanian form of Urd — the Norse Goddess of fate (itself from Old Norse urðr ‘fate’ and ‘uncanny’, though there are numerous other suggestions
- Kamilė — Camilla
- Gabrielė — Gabriella/Gabrielle
- Goda — probably arose as a short form of names beginning God-; now is interpreted as deriving from old Lithuanian words meaning ‘dream’ and ‘glory’.
- Rugilė — from rugys ‘rye’
- Miglė — from migla ‘mist’.
Boys:
- Matas — short form of Motiejus — Matthew; matas also means ‘measure’
- Lukas — Luke
- Dovydas — David
- Nojus — Noah
- Kajus — Gaius
- Jokūbas — Jacob
- Dominykas — Dominic
- Augustas — Augustus
- Mantas — of uncertain origin; possibly simply mantas ‘treasure’, or from manta ‘property’, ‘goods’, or mantus ‘friendly’, ‘clever’, ‘beautiful’
- Gustas — either Lithuanian form of Gustav, or a short form of AUGUSTAS. Also gustas ‘taste’ and ‘desire’.
Latvia’s looks like this:
Girls:
- Sofija — Sophia/Sophie
- Alise — Alice
- Viktorija — Victoria
- Anastasija — Anastasia
- Marta — Martha
- Anna — Anna/Ann(e)
- Evelīna — Evelina/Evelyn
- Emīilija — Emilia/Emily
- Laura
- Katrīna — Katherine
Boys:
- Roberts — Robert
- Gustavs — Gustav
- Markuss — Mark/Marcus
- Maksims — Maxim/Maximus
- Daniels — Daniel
- Artjoms — Artemius ‘belonging to (the Goddess) Artemis; the name of a saint venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Russian form is Artyom (it is also the source of the boy’s name Artemis, made famous by Artemis Fowl)
- Aleksanders — Alexander
- Ričards — Richard
- Ralfs — Ralph
- Artūrs — Arthur
And lastly, but not leastly, Estonia. Rather harder to pin down, but apparently, these were the most popular names in June 2011:
Girls:
- Laura
- Mia
- Sofia — Sophie/Sophia
- Maria — Maria/Mary
- Alisa — Alice
- Milana — could be an adoption of the Slavic Milana, feminine of Milan < mil ‘gracious,’ ‘dear’ and ‘beloved’, or an Estonian take on Melanie, or even Magdalene (Malin is a Finnish name derived from the last).
- Aleksandra — Alexandra
- Kertu — Gertrude
- Annabel
- Darja — Daria
Boys:
- Oliver — Oliver
- Rasmus — Erasmus
- Maksim — Maxim/Maximus
- Romet — modern name of uncertain meaning; possibly deriving from rõõmu ‘joy’
- Daniel
- Daniil — Daniel
- Henri — Henry
- Karl — Charles/Karl
- Sander — Alexander
- Markus — Mark/Marcus