Baltic Babies

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:

1. Emilija — Emilia/Emily
2. Gabija — Lithuanian Goddess of fire
3. Ugnė — ‘fire’
4. Austėja — Lithuanian Goddess of bees
5. 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
6. Kamilė — Camilla
   
7. Gabrielė — Gabriella/Gabrielle
8. Goda — probably arose as a short form of names beginning God-; now is interpreted as deriving from old Lithuanian words meaning ‘dream’ and ‘glory’.
9. Rugilė — from rugys ‘rye’
10. Miglė — from migla ‘mist’.

Boys:

1. Matas — short form of Motiejus — Matthew; matas also means ‘measure’
2. Lukas — Luke
3. Dovydas — David
4. Nojus — Noah
5. Kajus — Gaius
6. Jokūbas — Jacob
7. Dominykas — Dominic
8. Augustas — Augustus
9. Mantas — of uncertain origin; possibly simply mantas ‘treasure’, or from manta ‘property’, ‘goods’, or mantus ‘friendly’, ‘clever’, ‘beautiful’
10. Gustas — either Lithuanian form of Gustav, or a short form of AUGUSTAS. Also gustas ‘taste’ and ‘desire’.

Latvia’s looks like this:

Girls:

1. Sofija — Sophia/Sophie
2. Alise — Alice
3. Viktorija — Victoria
4. Anastasija — Anastasia
5. Marta — Martha
6. Anna — Anna/Ann(e)
7. Evelīna — Evelina/Evelyn
8. Emīilija — Emilia/Emily
9. Laura
10. Katrīna — Katherine

Boys:

1. Roberts — Robert
2. Gustavs — Gustav
3. Markuss — Mark/Marcus
4. Maksims — Maxim/Maximus
5. Daniels — Daniel
6. 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)
7. Aleksanders — Alexander
8. Ričards — Richard
9. Ralfs — Ralph
10. 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:

1. Laura
2. Mia
3. Sofia — Sophie/Sophia
4. Maria — Maria/Mary
5. Alisa — Alice
6. 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).
7. Aleksandra — Alexandra
8. Kertu — Gertrude
9. Annabel
10. Darja — Daria

Boys:

1. Oliver — Oliver
2. Rasmus — Erasmus
3. Maksim — Maxim/Maximus
4. Romet — modern name of uncertain meaning; possibly deriving from rõõmu ‘joy’
5. Daniel
6. Daniil — Daniel
7. Henri — Henry
8. Karl — Charles/Karl
9. Sander — Alexander
10. Markus — Mark/Marcus

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