15-16th Century Lithuanian Masculine Names from Vitsyebsk and Mahilyow districts, Belarus.

by Rebecca Lucas (ffride wlffsdotter)

Last updated 17th February 2018

Introduction

These are a small collection of personal names and bynames with a Lithuanian origin, found in the modern territory of north-eastern Belarus during the 15th and 16th centuries. Date ranges were taken from the titles of the sources mentioned by Hurskaia (Гурская, 2013).

The source for these names is:
Гурская, Юлия. 2013. Многоязычие в Великом княжестве Литовском в зеркале древних фамилий. Acta Baltica-Slavica. 37; 53-63.

There are two examples of identifiable Lithuanian given names – Butrimas (recorded as Butrym) and Getautas (recorded as Khetov”t’). The remainder appear as patronymics ending in -vīch (eg. Dovborovīch, Dovhīrdovīch, Khetoltovīch). In one instance, it is unclear what the modern name would be, though the prototheme is identifiable as being Baltic (eg. Kheleĭv).
The names were originally written in Cyrillic script, as the administrative language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was Ruthenian, also known as Chancery Slavonic. These names have been transliterated using the Library of Congress system for Belarusian script (Library of Congress, 2013). My transliterations are within [square brackets] for clarity.

Note: The digraph "кг"/"kh" has a different sound to "х"/"kh" - it sounds like "g". So Кгетовътъ is transcribed as Khetov”t’, but pronounced Getov”t’ (Woolhiser and Viačorka, 2012).

Personal Names

Butrimas

• Бутрым, челядин 15-16th c.
  [Butrym cheliadīn]

• Мартинъ а Лаврин Довборовичи 1528
  [Martīn” a Lavrīn Dovborovīchī]
  Reconstructed into the nominative singular, this would be the patronymic *Dovborovīch, and the given name *Dovbor.

• Довгирдович Богдан 15-16th c.
  [Dovhīrdovīch Bohdan]
  Reconstructed as the given name *Dovhīrd.

• Кгелейв Миколай, муж Оболецкий 15-16th c.
  [Kheleĭv Mīkolaĭ, muzh Oboletskīĭ]

• Кгетовътъ 1528
  [Khetov”t’]
• Кгетолтович Томко 1528
  [Khetoltovīch Tomko]
  Reconstructed as the given name *Khetolt.

Byames

Glosses of bynames that are derived from Lithuanian are taken from Hurskaia. Any errors in the translation and subsequent interpretation are entirely my own.

Kirdeikis ("to awaken")

• Гричи(ы)нович Кирдей, державца Оболецкий 15-16th c.
  [Hrīchī(y)novīch Kīrdeĭ, derzhavtsa Oboletskīĭ]

• Кульша Станька, боярин Оболецкий 15-16th c.
  [Kul’sha Stan’ka, boiarīn Oboletskīĭ]

• Рекштович Звега, дворянин Оболецкий 15-16th c.
  [Rekshtovīch Zvera, dvorianīn Oboletskīĭ]

• Ремеж Иван, муж Оболецкий 15-16th c.
  [Remezh Īvan, muzh Oboletskīĭ]

• Воболя Мацька 15-16th c.
  Vobolia Mats’ka

• Звейна Милька, муж Оболецкий 15-16th c.
  [Zveĭna Mīl’ka, muzh Oboletskīĭ]

References

• Гурская, Ю. 2013. Многоязычие в Великом княжестве Литовском в зеркале древних фамилий. [Multilingualism in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as reflected in Old Anthroponyms] Acta Baltica-Slavica. 37; 53-63.
  Online: https://doi.org/10.11649/abs.2013.004
• Library of Congress. 2013. ALA-LC Romanization Tables.
  Online: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html
• Woolhiser, C. and Viačorka, V. 2012. Proposal to revise the Belarusian ALA-LC romanization table.
  Online: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman_belarusian_proposal_explanation.pdf