New 16th century Lithuanian compound names with stems of hypocoristic origin

Abstract

Compound names whose stems arose from hypocoristics constitute a
subtype of Lithuanian names. Research of historical sources has revealed some new
such names: Bučvilà, Bùgvydas (or Bgvydas), Bùtkvilas, Daũdvilas, Daũnepras,
Daũtvilas, Eĩtgilas, Geĩtmantas, Kančeigãlas (or Kančeigáila), Nórgvilas, Tatavydas,
Vaĩstvilas. It has also been shown that components originating in hypocoristics are
found in the already known Daũdgėlas, Geĩtkantas, Geĩtvydas, Gibutkis. These
names show that the inventory of proper names was expanded with parts of other
names and that names originating in hypocoristics influenced compound names. The
new stems buč-, bug- (or būg-), butk-, daud-, daut-, eit-, geit-, kanč-, nepr-, norg-,
vaist- can be added to the already known buk-, darg-, eid-, eig-, jog-, jos-, tart-. The
base of such stems originated in the first component of a compound name and the
beginning of the second component, extended with a suffix. Except for darg- and
vaist-, the stems are only found in Lithuanian names, which implies that they were
created apart from Prussian.