Vardai

Vardai, in Lithuanian, is the term for names and is a central topic in onomastics. The word vardai is the plural of vardas, which denotes a proper name used to identify a person, a place, or a thing. In everyday use, vardai include personal names (asmenvardžiai), family names (pavardės), and geographical names (toponimai).

Asmenvardžiai are given names used to identify an individual. In Lithuanian they are gendered and declined across seven grammatical cases, a feature of the language’s inflection system. Many asmenvardžiai derive from Baltic roots, but numerous names also come from Christian saints, other European languages, or descriptive elements. Name choice often reflects family tradition, religious affiliation, or cultural influences. In official contexts, a person’s full name typically consists of given name(s) followed by a family name, written in the standard order used in Lithuania.

Pavardės are family names used to identify a person within a family. They are likewise declined in the seven cases and often have masculine and feminine forms. Surnames can originate from ancestors’ occupations, places, nicknames, or patronymic roots. The system has evolved with social change, and contemporary practice may involve adaptations for international contexts or gender agreements in forms of names across documents.

Toponimai are geographical names for places, rivers, regions, and other features. They reflect historical settlements, language contact, and changes in governance. Lithuanian toponymy bears influences from Baltic, Slavic, Germanic, and other sources, and is subject to standardization in official maps and databases.

Orthography and data usage: Lithuanian vardai preserve diacritics, which carry phonological distinctions. When names are used in international contexts, they may be transcribed or adapted, but standard Lithuanian forms are preferred in native texts. Indexing and cataloging of names follow rules to treat inflected forms as the same headword for information retrieval.