Personal names of Kaunas women in the context of Lithuanian historical anthroponymy in the 16 th –17 th centuries

The article examines the names and personal names (second members of the binary naming model) in terms of word formation. The present investigation analyses the names of 160 women who lived in Kaunas in the 16 th century; the names were collected from the official documents of the town dated 1522–1591. In addition, to outline further development of personal names, women’s anthroponyms from later city manuscripts of 17 th century are provided. Among 160 women’s personal names of 16 th century, the majority of them have the Lithuanian suffix -ienė (i.e. 81 anthroponym, or 50.62%). Considerably less derivatives with the suffixes -aičia, -yčia, -ikė, -ūčia (17, or 10.61%) were noticed. The remaining personal names (59, or 38.77%) are formed with Slavic suffixes -ova and -ovna. In total, nominal-origin forms were restored in 25 personal names of the 16 th century and compared with contemporary Lithuanian surnames. Attention should be drawn to the fact that their major part (20 reconstructions, or 80%) has clear equivalents in the index of contemporary Lithuanian names. The inventory of Lithuanian suffixes of the 16 th century women from Kaunas is not an isolated phenomenon in the Lithuanian historical anthroponymy of that period. In the index of proper names of Vilnius, Joniškis, and Kėdainiai cities in the 16 th –17 th centuries, such personal names with Lithuanian word-building formants still existed. Historical anthroponymic studies of Lithuanian city residents should be carried out further as such future studies could supplement and corroborate the statements set out herein. It is probable that authentic personal names of Lithuanian women could also exist in other historical sources of the 16th–17 th centuries