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50 Languages culture | 86 PRANAS KNIŪKŠTA Lithuanian Language Institute Names and Surnames Documentary Stories KEY WORDS: Supreme Council resolution, Lithuanian scripts, draft regulations, spelling of names and surnames. the spelling of personal names in the documents of Lithuania after independence was started to be handled by issuing citizenship certificates of the Republic of Lithuania. The decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of 9 May 1990 determined that “in the citizenship certificate of the Republic of Lithuania the surnames, names and father’s names (surnames) are written in Lithuanian characters...” At the request of persons of non-Lithuanian nationality, their personal names are allowed to be written “after the main entry and without adding Lithuanian endings”. It was important to specify Lithuanian characters, because until then (in Soviet times) personal names and other data in documents were also written in Russian. It was necessary to break away from that former order. but the principle of writing the last name before the first name and adding the father's name after the first name was retained. A completely new provision was to allow the personal names of non-Lithuanian nationals to be written without endings after the main entry. The spelling of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania has been arranged differently. In accordance with the Regulations on the passport of the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, approved on 8 November 1990, the data in the passport of the Republic of Lithuania are recorded in Lithuanian, and among the personal data recorded is mentioned the name (s), surname. From this formulation we see that the names are put before the surnames, and the father's name is not left at all. A separate resolution provides that the specific procedure for writing names in passports of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania “is determined by the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania on the submission of the State Lithuanian Language Commission”. The initial version of the proposals was discussed by several linguists of the Lithuanian Language Institute and members of the Language Commission. then we discussed them with the Department of Nationalities and with representatives of national minorities. Especially active was the Union of Lithuanian Poles, which was active in Lithuania at that time. Mr. Booker. The Language Commission carefully examined 51 proposals for the writing of names and surnames in historical documents. The first, main, point was formulated easily and simply: “the names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania are written in Lithuanian characters according to the entries in the existing passports or other personal documents on the basis of which the passport was issued.” The procedure of writing double personal names (writing personal names without Lithuanian endings after the main entry) applied to citizens' certificates was not suitable for passports. but the forms of names and surnames of foreign persons without endings had to be recognized and legalized. The principle of complementarity has been chosen. First, the general rule was established that the names and surnames of persons of non-Lithuanian nationality are written according to pronunciation and “grammatined by adding Lithuanian endings”. further added the provision that, upon the request of the citizen, his name and surname in the passport ‘may be entered unspelled (without Lithuanian endings)’. The Language Commission submitted its proposals to the Supreme Council in December 1990 (Language Culture 63: 13). The Supreme Council adopted the resolution “On the spelling of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania” on 31 January 1991. The first point of the Commission’s proposals, setting out the general principle of writing names and surnames in the passport in Lithuanian characters, was approved without amendments. The order of writing names and surnames of persons of non-Lithuanian nationality has been somewhat clarified: in order to avoid doubts and misunderstandings, it has been added that they are also written in Lithuanian characters. but a more democratic order of grammar (adding endings) of personal names has been established – their grammated and ungrammated forms are presented as completely parallel variants. the following specific and unambiguous clause: „2. The names and surnames of persons of non-Lithuanian nationality in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania issued shall be written in Lithuanian characters. On the written request of a citizen in the established form, the name and surname are written: a) according to pronunciation and ungrammatical (without Lithuanian endings), or (b) by pronunciation and grammatical (with the addition of Lithuanian endings).’ The decision also has a third point, where it talks about persons who had the citizenship of another state; indicate that their names may be spelled in accordance with a document available in that State. at the time, this point was not relevant, but later proved necessary. (we will talk about this later.) 52 Languages Culture | 86 The resolution of the Supreme Council answered the most important questions about the spelling of names and surnames that arose at the time, but in practice various uncertainties arose. For example, the decree regulated the spelling of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, but said nothing about their writing in other documents. Many minor questions arose regarding the spelling of non-Lithuanian personal names, when passports had to be issued according to documents that did not have entries in Lithuanian script. The spelling of Russian personal names in Lithuanian characters was regulated by the Instruction on the Transcription of Surnames, First Names and Place Names from Russian to Lithuanian and from Lithuanian to Russian, issued in 1990. The rules also applied to the new passport records. The rules for spelling Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian names and surnames in Lithuania were prepared and approved in autumn 1991 by the Lithuanian language commission. They were submitted to the Passport Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Civil Registry Department of the Ministry of Justice, and were published in 1993 in the publication Normative Documents of Citizenship and Citizen’s Passport of the Republic of Lithuania. the submission of the rules to the Civil Registry Department implicitly meant that they were proposed to apply to civil registration documents. The Government also spoke about the implementation of the Supreme Council’s resolution. By its decree of 12 May 1993, it set up a working group ‘to examine the spelling of names and surnames in personal documents’. It includes staff from the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Departments of Migration and Nationalities. I was appointed as the leader of that group, so I had to plan and organize its work. The working group started its activities by reminding the rules according to which names and surnames written in Russian, Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian are transliterated into Lithuanian. In addition, it is added that personal names written in other languages are transliterated into Lithuanian letters according to the rules set out in the publication Non-Lithuanian Real Names Writing in the Lithuanian Soviet Encyclopedia. The rules of this source are applied primarily and without reservation to documents of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania. but it is not quite clear how to apply them to the names of citizens of other states. According to the Supreme Council's decree, their names and surnames "may be spelled according to the passport or equivalent document of a citizen of that state". there is nothing said about the characters, so there are two possible interpretations. personal names of foreigners from their documents may be transliterated into Lithuanian characters according to the general principle. but more logical different conclusion – since the first- Mr. Booker. From the writing of names and surnames in documents, the 53rd and the second paragraphs of the resolution speak about Lithuanian characters, while the third does not mention them, and this requirement does not apply to it. The spelling and use of names and surnames also raised various linguistic and legal questions for the records managers and the public. For example, it was not clear to everyone how children’s surnames were formed and written on birth certificates, especially when the child’s surname was chosen from the mother’s maiden name. There were questions about changing names and surnames or their forms, about correcting mistakes and other spelling matters. Various questions and uncertainties had to be clarified with the employees of institutions and institutions, mainly with passport and registration departments. there were requests to prepare a broader overview of the use of names and surnames and to present it as advice or instruction to the wider public. A preliminary version of such an overview was prepared and discussed with the members of the working group at the end of 1995. Experts of the Language Commission discussed and completed it several times in the beginning of 1996. The revised version was approved by the experts and its title was approved as “Provisions on the spelling of names and surnames in personal documents”. submitted provisions had five chapters: 1. general principles of the use and spelling of personal names; 2. writing of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania; 3. writing names and surnames in other documents; 4. spelling of names and surnames of persons associated with the citizenship of other states; 5. Change of names and surnames, correction of forms and errors of personal names. The provisions were based on the 1991 resolution of the Supreme Council and adhered to its requirements, but tried not to repeat its statements literally and were not satisfied with them. After the main statements, additional points or statements are often added, where the issue is discussed more broadly and comprehensively. so, for example, described items of writing names and surnames of persons of non-Lithuanian nationality. After the basic instructions that they are “written in Lithuanian characters in the passport according to the Lithuanian entries in the personal documents in possession of the person” and that “male names and surnames may have a spelled (with Lithuanian ending) or unspelled (without Lithuanian ending) form at the discretion of the person”, the following addition was added: “the roots and suffixes of the existing names and surnames are not Lithuanianized, e.g.: from Ryšard or Ryšardas is not made Ričardas, from Vasilevskij or Vasilevskis is not made Vasiliauskas; Lithuanian suffixes are not added to existing girls' and women's surnames, e.g. : 54 Language Culture | 86 Rimovič does not make Rimovičiūtė or Rimovičienė, Kuzmicka does not make Kuzmickaitė or Kuzmickienė.” Another explanation of the spelling of these personal names can be found in the section on their spelling in other documents. After the general indication that “in documents are used various forms of personal names required by the text”, the following was added: “with the ending of the required syllable are also written those male personal names, the official (noun) form of which is ungrammatical (without ending), e.g. : Certificate issued to Jan Kozlowski; Registered marriage with Jan Kozlovskis (official form without Lithuanian endings – Jan Kozlovski).” In this regard, the names and surnames of citizens of other states written in non-Lithuanian characters are also discussed, it is stated that they are not romanized (Lithuanian endings are not added). „but when writing personal names in a place of the document where certain humorous forms are required, the endings are added to male names and surnames after the apostrophe, e.g. : Registered marriage with Fischer.“ and the section of persons with other nationalities has been considerably expanded and detailed. There are three groups of such persons: 1) genuine citizens of other states, 2) persons with dual (Lithuanian and foreign) citizenship and 3) citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who have married a citizen of another state. the spelling of their names and surnames in Lithuanian and other languages with Latin alphabets is discussed; added that the second can be without diacritics. A large part of the provisions is not directly related to the Supreme Council resolution, but indirectly relies on it. such in particular the section of other documents. It discusses the writing of personal names in various documents step by step and illustrates it with concrete examples. The first chapter is even further away from the decree, but it relates to the whole of the provisions and is like their introduction, without which the provisions would be separated from the general use of personal names, as if suspended in the air. The regulations are prepared as instructions for the professional usage of names and surnames and as advice for the general public in this area. It is a pity that they have not been officially approved and have not reached the public. The language commission approved the provisions, but did not formally approve them, because they relate not only to language but also to legal matters. They are called draft regulations and so named to be sent to ministries and institutions dealing with the spelling of names and surnames in documents. Opinions, suggestions and requests have been requested. Mr. Booker. 55 The feedback and evaluations received were favourable, the draft was generally approved by all, but various additional and corrective comments were made. The project was approved without reservation by the Ministry of Interior (its employees also participated in the drafting of the regulations). As expected, the majority of proposals were submitted by the Ministry of Justice. Since the legal opinion was particularly important and in line with the general direction of the proposals, we will consider their comments in more detail. Four of the seven comments suggested clarifying the wording of the text: instead of the persons related to the citizenship of other states, it was proposed to write persons having the citizenship of other states; in documents issued by the Republic of Lithuania – supplemented in documents issued by institutions of the Republic of Lithuania; citizens of Lithuanian nationality – to supplement citizens of Lithuanian nationality of the Republic of Lithuania; naturalised by ordinary procedure: to replace naturalised by ordinary procedure. the proposals in question do not change the substance of the statements, much less add anything new to or remove anything from the draft provisions as a whole. only two comments related to the content of the document: in one place it was proposed to delete the words and residents of other states "as unnecessary"; elsewhere, to delete the subparagraph as ‘the provision contained therein is not the subject of this document’. To these comments can be added doubt – whether the prepared document should not be called rules; not regulations, but rules. The opinions and comments on the draft provisions have shown that such provisions are necessary and that the draft submitted is generally well drafted. These shortcomings and inaccuracies were not difficult to correct. It was much harder to decide what to do with the whole project, who and how it should be approved. It seemed to many that the Language Commission could do this. such view was denied by lawyers of the Seimas legal department. According to their explanation, if the provisions were adopted by a resolution of the Language Commission, the Commission would exceed its powers; if they were adopted by government decree, it would be good. The language commission considered the draft amended in the light of the comments received on 30 May 1996 (minutes No. 7). It was decided: To approve the draft provisions on the writing of names and surnames in personal documents and to submit it to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania for approval. 56 Languages culture | 86 The government did not take up this work, so it was passed to the Seimas, to which the amended version of the draft was handed over according to the comments of the institutions and ministries. the Seimas no longer needed to discuss its content, the most important thing was to legalize it as a document. it was necessary to determine the status of the future document and its relationship with other documents, in particular with the resolution of the Supreme Council. He could not change the resolution, he could not be declared an appendix to it. According to the content it was like an addition to the resolution, but that connection between them came after a long time. was proposed to approve the draft regulations by a separate law. and it would have been best to make the decree of the Supreme Council into a law and to formalize the confirming statutes as an appendix thereto. There were other ways to approve the project document, so it was incomprehensible why the Seimas delayed to do so. After some time it became clear – Poland does not allow. requires Polish surnames of Lithuanian citizens to be written in Polish characters and wants to impose this requirement by treaty. The Lithuanian-Polish Treaty on Friendly Relations and Good-Neighbourly Cooperation, concluded in 1994, does not mention scripts, it only talks about the use of names and surnames “according to the sound of the national minority language”. Detailed rules for the spelling of names are to be established in a special agreement. Negotiations on such an agreement began at the time when the fate of the Provisions on the spelling of names and surnames in personal documents was being discussed (1996). May). The Lithuanian delegation adhered to the principles of the Supreme Council resolution, there was no need to refer to the draft provisions, they could not add anything new. Poland felt that the provisions were the main obstacle to concluding a treaty that met its wishes. It has expressed its opposition to the draft regulations in various ways, even sending a note on them. for Lithuanians they did not have much significance, so for the sake of peace they were put on the shelf. but Poland did not get anything, the planned contract was not concluded. It has been negotiated several times (in 2002, 2004), but the agreement has not been concluded again. Unable to blame the provisions, Poland began to reproach the Supreme Council's decision, almost openly demanding its repeal. The government could not withstand the pressure and on a couple of occasions (in 2007 and 2010) tried to do so – to curse the unconstitutional law that allows the names of Lithuanian citizens to be written in non-Lithuanian characters. Good thing the Seimas didn't allow it. I have written several articles about this, they are published in the book Between grammar and politics, so we will not discuss these issues here. Mr. Booker. The history of writing names and surnames in documents 57 IŠVaDos 1. The basis for writing names and surnames in documents was established by the Decision of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania of 31 January 1991 “On writing names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania”. The most important principle declared by him – to write the names of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania in Lithuanian characters. 2. The decision did not cover other documents and all possible spelling of names and surnames. it required broader rules or some other normative document. At the end of 1995, the Rules on the Writing of Names and Surnames in Personal Documents were prepared; The language commission submitted them to the Sejm for approval. in the Sejm they got stuck and were not approved. 3. There are no major uncertainties or misunderstandings regarding the writing of names and surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania in documents. Only Poles are trying to take over, dissatisfied that their names, like other Lithuanian citizens, are written in Lithuanian characters in documents. Poland is also making claims – it wants to impose its desired order by means of an interstate agreement, almost openly demanding the revocation of the Supreme Council’s decision. 4. not resisting the pressure, the Government had prepared a couple of times (in 2007 and 2010) unconstitutional bills allowing the names of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania to be written in documents in non-Lithuanian characters. the Seimas rejected those projects. we must hope that such projects will not be introduced even to the current parliament. Decision of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania “On the spelling of surnames, first names and father’s names (surnames) in the citizenship certificate of the Republic of Lithuania”, 9 May 1990, No. 199. (Reviewed 2008-04-15). Decree of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania “On the approval of the provisions of the passport of the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania”, 8 November 1990, No. 1–776. (The New York Times, 1990-03-29). Decree of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania “On the writing of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania”, 31 January 1991, No. 1–1031. (The New York Times, 1991-05-13). Treaty between the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Poland on Friendly Relations and Good Neighbourly Cooperation, 21 April 1994 (Valstybės žinios, 1994, No. 97–1907). 58 Languages and Culture | 86 1993. Letter of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania to the State Lithuanian Language Commission of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, 18 March 1996, No. 01-03-345/393. The Writing of Non-Lithuanian Real Names in the Lithuanian Soviet Encyclopedia, Vilnius: Vyriausioji enciklopedijų redakcija, 1986. Transliteration of surnames, names and place names from Russian to Lithuanian and from Lithuanian to Russian, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1990. proposals "On the writing of names and surnames in the passport of the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania". – Language Culture 63, 1992, p. 13. Provisions for writing names and surnames in personal documents. discussed and approved by the Lithuanian Language Commission, 30 May 1996, protocol No. 7. Received 04/11/2013 Adopted on 20 December 2013 FroM tHE HIstorY oF sPEllING oF FIrst NaMEs aND surNaMEs IN DoCuMENts Summary the fundamental principles for the spelling of first names and surnames in documents were established by the resolution of the supreme Council of the republic of lithuania dated 31 January 1991 on the spelling of first names and surnames in the passports of citizens of the republic of lithuania. the key principle stipulated in the resolution maintains that first names and surnames of the citizens of the republic of lithuania must be written in lithuanian characters. the same principle applies to the lithuanian citizens of non-lithuanian descent, only they can choose whether to write their first names and surnames with a lithuanian ending or without it. the resolution was directly applicable to passports but failed to cover other documents as well as all the cases of spelling of personal names. therefore, the employees of institutions issuing documents, mostly passport divisions and civil registry offices, used to face various questions. their requirement for the drafting of more extensive guidelines for the spelling of first names and surnames or a differently titled description of such type became increasingly intense. the description was drafted at the end of 1995 under the title “regulations of spelling of First Names and surnames in Personal Documents”. they were considered by the experts of the state Commission of the lithuanian language for several times; afterwards, they were distributed among ministries and institu-