| Abstract [eng] |
The Registry Office of Šiauliai Municipality made a list of the most popular baby names in Šiauliai for the years 2007 and 2008 which contains 27 names (15 boys’ and 12 girls’ names). Among them the list contains 10 most popular baby names of the country. Consequently, we can speak about the tendency or fashion in choosing names for babies. In 2008, 38 names were given: 11 genuine Lithuanian names (4 for boys and 7 for girls), 7 abbreviated names (6 for boys and 1 for girls) and 20 names from other languages (13 for boys and 7 for girls). Lithuanian names could be divided into three derivational types (compounds, suffixational and inflectional derivatives) and name abbreviations. Abbreviations from Germanic, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew names could appear in the Lithuanian language as diminutives marking names distinguishing children from adults and so on. The most popular borrowed names came to the Lithuanian language from six different languages: Old Latin, Hebrew, Germanic and newer languages, i.e. Spanish, German, and Italian. In 2008 short names were more popular: the Nominative (singular) of 17 names consisted of two syllables. 16 names were trisyllabic. The least popular were the names which consisted of four syllables (there were only 5 such names). It is much easier to form a diminutive form of a shorter name, while longer names are more often used abbreviated. Thus in Šiauliai (as well as all over the country) the tendency to give babies short names taken from other languages can be observed. |
