Personal Names
Prussian Lithuanian surnames often consist of a patronymic with suffixes "-eit" and "-at". It has the same role as the English suffix "-son" in the surnames Abrahamson and Johnson. Examples include: Abromeit, Grigoleit, Jakeit, Wowereit, Kukulat, Szameitat.
Another type of Prussian Lithuanian surname use the suffixes "-ies" or "-us": Kairies, Resgies, Baltßus, Karallus.
A difference existed between female and male surnames in everyday speech. For example, while officially the wife of Kurschat (Prussian Lithuanian Kurßaitis or Kurßatis) was also called Kurschat, in the Prussian Lithuanian language special forms were used in speech: the form of a wife's surname was Kurßaitê / Kurßatė and the form of an unmarried woman was Kurßaitikê / Kurßaitukê.
Read more about this topic: Prussian Lithuanians
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or names:
“Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth. Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and the equinox!”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“No, no! I don’t, I don’t want to know your name. You don’t have a name, and I don’t have a name, either. No names here. Not one name.”
—Bernardo Bertolucci (b. 1940)