Trends in the Naming of Kėdainiai Women in Kėdainiai Historical Sources of the 17th–18th Centuries

  • Alma Ragauskaitė
Keywords: Kėdainiai, Kėdainiai woman, historical anthroponymy, historical personal name, naming

Abstract

    Municipal register books, various inventories, registers and church registers are among the key historical anthroponymic sources of Lithuanian townspeople. The most notable among them are the Kėdainiai inventories of 1604, 1622, 1624 and 1666 and the documents of Kėdainiai Evangelical Reformed Church of 1628–1663 written in the Polish language. Eighty-two records of Kėdainiai women were collected from these unique manuscripts of the 17th century. They are thoroughly discussed from the perspective of naming. It was established that the female residents of the town of the Radziwill noble family were usually recorded by two suffixal anthroponyms formed after their husband. The naming of 32 women followed such a pattern (39.02% of all the cases of naming). As many as 13 (15.86%) women of Kėdainiai were recorded by the first name and surname or by an anthroponym performing its functions. They were usually given traditional Christian names. In the later baptismal register of 1752–1799 kept by St. George’s Church of Kėdainiai Parish, 32 surnames of the townswomen bearing Lithuanian suffixes were identified.

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