PRANAS KNIŪKŠTA

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

WHERE THE SURNAME KNIŪKŠTŲ COMES FROM

Kniūkšta is one of the rarer Lithuanian surnames. As the Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames shows, in interwar Lithuania there were 60 families with this surname (LPŽ I 1034). The surname was widespread in a small area of the Samogitian dialect, mainly in the vicinity of Salantai (19 families), Plungė (14), Kuliai (11), and Kartena (10); only six families in total are mentioned elsewhere.

The dictionary also gives a form with a short u: Kniukšta. A total of 45 such families were counted, almost half of them from Kretinga, and the rest from a wider area—from Mažeikiai and Seda to Klaipėda. The origin is stated cautiously: “It seems that surnames with a short u vowel are secondary, later forms, certain alterations of surnames with kniūkšt-.” In fact, there is no need for such caution here; one can confidently say that these surnames with a short u are corrupted forms, or, to put it more directly, forms written with a spelling error. More on this was written in a separate article, “Kniūkšta, not Kniukšta”¹. It may be added that the form with a short u may also have spread from Polish or Russian renderings of the surname Kniukszta, Кнюкшта, from which Kniūkšta is usually reconstructed.

Two more variants of the surname under discussion are mentioned: Kniūkštas and Kniūkštys, recorded farther from the surname’s main area of distribution: Kniūkštas four times (including two from Kaunas), and Kniūkštys once, that instance reconstructed from the Germanized form Kniukšties. These are most likely accidental alterations of Kniūkšta, in which not only the length of the vowel u but also the ending was changed.

The dictionary links the surname Kniūkšta to the adjective kniūkštas, kniūkšta, giving its meaning as synonymous with the adjective kniūbščias—“bent over, reaching the ground with one’s face.” It also gives the surname Kniūpštà as directly related to the adjective kniūbščias (kniūb-ščias) (from Kniūbšta), though it was recorded only once—from Gargždai. The surnames Kniūkšta and Kniūpštà are cross-referenced: Kniūkšta see Kniūpštà; Kniūpštà see Kniūkšta. The dictionary links them on the basis of their formation and meaning

See Kniūkšta P. Kalbos vartosena ir tvarkyba, Vilnius: Publishing House of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 2001, 576–578.¹

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similarity, but indicate their different independent origins: Kniūpšta is derived from kniūbščias, Kniūkšta from kniūkštas.

Historically, the relationships between these surnames are somewhat different and more complex; sources from earlier times help trace them. The oldest such source is the Salantai church baptismal register for 1641–1659, preserved in the Salantai church archive. In fact, the surname Kniūkšta does not occur in this book; I was unable to find the surname Kniūpšta either, but its existence is indicated by the patronymics recorded there: Kniūpštaitis, Kniūpštaitė (written in Polish orthography as Kniupsztaytis, Kniupsztaytė—the article’s author, who has Lithuanianized them, writes them with long ū). The book mentions Ambraziejus (Ambrozius) Kniūpštaitis a couple of times: on August 28, 1657, he is recorded as a godfather; on February 28, 1658, a girl was baptized whose father was also (probably the same) Ambraziejus Kniūpštaitis. Kniūpštaitė is recorded on March 1, 1659, when the daughter of Marinos Kniūpštaitės was baptized (the mothers’ maiden surnames are recorded before marriage). Both of these Kniūpštaičiai were from Barzdžiai; presumably, their father Kniūpšta lived in Barzdžiai. No Kniūpštaičiai or Kniūpštai from other places are recorded; it is quite possible that there were none elsewhere at the time.

This personal name, associated with the verb kniupti and its derivative kniūpščias, must originally have been a nickname, referring to one particular person who stumbled or lurched. Such a person must have lived in Barzdžiai; the same nickname may not have existed elsewhere, where a similar human trait might have gone unnamed or been denoted by a word formed differently.

A surname of similar meaning, Kniustis, associated with the verb kniusti, meaning ‘to stumble’ (LKŽ VI 270), is recorded in an entry dated July 28, 1641, for someone from the neighboring village of Pėstės. The Polonized surname Kniustovič (written in Polish as Kniustowicz) and the patronymics Kniustaitis, Kniustaitė (the latter also from places other than Pėstės) are recorded several times.

The personal names Kniustis and Kniūpšta, which became surnames, met different fates. Kniustis gradually declined: in the 1853 list of residents of Salantai parish, Kniustis is recorded twice, and Kniustaitė (written Kniustowna) and Kniustienė (written Kniustowa) once each; in the 1896 list, only one Kniustis remained (written in Russian as Кнюстис). A few decades later, Kniustis had disappeared entirely—the LPŽ no longer lists this surname.

The surname Kniūpšta persisted until the 19th century, then took another form and became Kniūkšta. The older form is still found in the Kalnalis church baptismal register for 1793–1821 (the book is kept at the Kretinga Museum). In it, the surname Kniūpšta (written Kniupszta) and the maiden surname Kniūpštaitė (written Kniupsztowna) are recorded during the final decade of the 18th century in three villages—

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Bardžiai, Kūlių Sodas (now Kūlsodis), and Nasrėnai. From Bardžiai, a godfather Juozapas Kniūpšta and the same child’s mother, Kotryna Kniūpštaitė, are recorded in 1796; from Kūlių Sodas, the child’s father Juozapas Kniūpšta in 1794; from Nasrėnai, the godmother Julija Kniūpštaitė in 1794, the godmother Kotryna Kniūpštaitė in 1796, and the godfather Laurynas Kniūpšta in 1799.

The book contains some slightly different surname variants. Stanislovas Kniupštas is recorded from Nasrėnai in 1794. Particularly interesting is an entry from 1820, stating that the baptized child’s mother was Marina Kniuštūona (Kniusztołwna), and the godmother Ona Kniuštūona—both from Kūlupėnai. Their Lithuanianized surname would be Kniūštaitė, and the corresponding male surname Kniūšta.

Such forms may have arisen as transcription errors, but they also show that other surname variants and other surnames began to compete with the older surname form, including Kniustis. The form Kniūšta, which emerged alongside Kniūpštos, was something of a bridge between Kniūpštos and Kniūkštos. It was easy to shift from one form to the other because, formally (in sound), they were similar, while their original meaning and connection with the verb kniūpti had faded. That Kniūšta and Kniūkšta could be understood as variants of the same surname is demonstrated by several of my father’s documents, one of them a service record booklet from 1928–1938. On its cover and on the pages for the first three years, the name is written Kniūšta; on the following pages, Kniukšta, and in one place even Kniusta (the short u is used throughout). Finally, the article’s author himself has received mail addressed not as Kniūkšta but as Kniūkštas, Kniusta, not to mention the version with a short u – Kniukšta. The emergence of Kniūkštos from Kniūpštos may also have been encouraged by a tendency toward consonant assimilation: a form with two k sounds more comfortable to pronounce than jumping from k to p.

The surname Kniūkšta does not occur in the aforementioned Kalnalis church baptismal register, but it does appear in the 1853 list of residents of Salantai parish. The old form Kniūpšta is no longer found there; it has everywhere been replaced by Kniūkšta (written Kniukszta). Kniūkšta also appeared in those villages where the Kalnalis register had Kniūpšta—in Bardžiai and Kūlių Sodas. Kniūpšta could not simply have vanished without a trace. Clearly, Kniūkšta was not a new surname here, nor was it formed from the word kniūkštas; rather, it was reshaped from the surname Kniūpšta.

The list shows not only the surname’s newer form but also its spread. It indicates that at the time there were five independent Kniūkštų households in Salantai parish, represented by five Kniūkštos recorded as household heads. One such head of household, Pranciškus Kniūkšta, lived in Erlėnai; two—Simonas Kniūkšta and Jonas Kniūkšta—in Jakštaičiai; and two more, both Juozapai, in Bardžiai.

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(Family members make it possible to trace that one of them was my great-grandfather.) Listed alongside the other families are three cottagers who had families of their own: in Jakštaičiai, Antanas Kniūkšta; in Kūlių Sodoje, Juozapas Kniūkšta; and in Barzdžių Medsėdžiai, Mikodemas Kniūkšta (spelled just so: Mikodemas). Two more Kniūkšta families are recorded as hired hands for other householders: in Juodupėnai, Petras Kniūkšta; in Šaučikiai, Juozapas Kniūkšta and his wife Ona. Only the given names of family members, wives, and children are recorded, so there are no Kniūkštienės at all. Six Kniūkštaitės (written Kniukszłowna), however, are recorded as living outside their own families: one in the Salantai parish poorhouse, one as a cottager in Pesčiai, and four as hired hands (two in Juodupėnai, one each in Jakštaičiai and Kūlių Sodoje). Thus the Kniūkštas surname was widespread in Salantai parish: nine families are recorded, living in seven villages, and Kniūkštas and Kniūkštaitės are recorded in as many as nine different places. The Kniūkštas are absent from Nasrėnai, however, where the Kalnalis baptismal register recorded Kniūpšta and Kniūpštaitė, though no Kniūpštai remained there either.

A similar picture of the Kniūkštas surnames is presented by the list of Salantai parish residents compiled in 1896. It differs in appearance, of course, because it was written in Russian characters during the period of the press ban, and the names and surnames were Russified more thoroughly than they had previously been Polonized. Kniūkšta, too, is written with the ending –o as Кнюкшто; some women are recorded this way too, probably Kniūkštaitės, while once a form indicating a married woman, Кнюкшотова, is recorded. Such distortions do not prevent the original surnames from being reconstructed or their distribution traced.

The second list includes all five of the formerly independent Kniūkštas households. But two new ones appear: in Erlienai, the second householder, Petras Kniūkšta, is recorded; in Barzdžių Medsėdžiai, a householder, Antanas Kniūkšta, has taken the place of the former cottager. The cottagers previously in Jakštaičiai and Kūlių Sodoje, and the hired hands previously in Juodupėnai and Šaučikiai, are gone; the Kniūkštas are no longer seen at all in those last three villages. A hired hand is recorded in Didieji Žalimai, and a cottager in Salantai. No Kniūkštaitė hired hands are recorded, but there are women cottagers (Kniūkštaitės or Kniūkštienės): one in Šaukliai and two in Salantai. In all, the Kniūkštas surname is recorded in seven places; the established Kniūkštas ancestral homelands are Barzdžiai, Erlėnai, and Juodupėnai, and the surname is gradually making its way into Salantai as well.

By the late nineteenth century, the Kniūkštas surname was undoubtedly widespread beyond Salantai parish, although the author of this article has not collected specific data of this kind. The evidence nevertheless clearly shows that it continued to spread, both in numbers and geographically.

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The Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames shows that around the middle of the twentieth century there were 19 Kniūkštas families in the Salantai area (the dictionary contains an error: the abbreviation given there is for Sintautai, not Salantai). We may assume that the area covered was that of Salantai district, which roughly coincided with Salantai parish. This means that in half a century, the number of residents with this surname in the Salantai area had doubled.

The Kniūkštas surname is almost as common in the Plungė and Kretinga areas (recorded 18 times in each), and somewhat less common, though also widespread, in the Kartena (10) and Kuliai (11) areas. Although in some places it is recorded with a long u and elsewhere with a short one, it is the same surname, so the forms are counted and discussed together here. The dictionary shows that in the mid-twentieth century this surname was widespread across a small area of the Samogitian dialect, between Salantai, Kretinga, Kuliai, and Plungė (including Kartena). It is recorded only once or twice in other places. Altogether, this surname, including the variant Kniukštas, is recorded 109 times: 76 in the main area and 33 elsewhere.

The present-day distribution of the Kniūkštas surname can be gauged from telephone directories, which list the surnames of people with landline telephones. According to the 2001 Klaipėda County telephone directory, that year 15 Kniūkštas, 26 Kniūkštienės, and one Kniūkštaitė had telephones in Kretinga district (many of them were recorded there with a short u). This suggests that there must then have been about 40 Kniūkštas families in Kretinga district. Half a century earlier, 51 were recorded in that area (the districts of Kretinga, Salantai, Kartena, and Darbėnai), so the number was slightly higher. The telephone directory does not show the true total; there may also have been Kniūkštas families without telephones. In any case, their numbers declined rather than increased in the traditional Kniūkštas surname area.

This does not mean that the overall number of people bearing the Kniūkštas surname declined. Their numbers increased elsewhere, and the surname began to spread to places where it had not been found before. For example, in the mid-twentieth century this surname was recorded five times each in Klaipėda and Endriejavas, whereas according to the 2001 telephone directory, as many as 55 people bearing the Kniūkštas surname had telephones in Klaipėda city and district (Kniūkštos and Kniūkštienės).

In other directions, the Kniūkštas surname spread even farther. According to the 2004 Kaunas County telephone directory, six Kniūkštas families had telephones in Kaunas and two in Kaunas district. Four people with this surname are recorded in Kaišiadorys district. In the 2004 Vilnius city telephone directory, Kniūkšta appears seven times and Kniūkštienė four times. The surname is absent from the districts of Vilnius County; it did not have time to spread there. In general, it is widespread in western Lithuania and in the major cities.

I can illustrate how the Kniūkštas surname spread using examples from my own family. At the beginning of the twentieth century, my grandfather Ka

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zimieras Kniūkšta. In the 1920s, one of his sons settled in the Darbėnai area, another in Kretinga district, while the third, my father, stayed in Barzdžiai. Neither the man from Kretinga nor the one from Darbėnai left any male descendants or continued the surname, so it once again had to spread from Barzdžiai. Here, in my father’s family, there were three of us brothers—one stayed in Barzdžiai, and the other two settled farther afield, one in Kretinga and the other in Vilnius. This time the spread of the family name did not stop; the next generation carried it to almost all of Lithuania. The younger generation of our family, Kniūkštas, now live in as many as seven towns: Kretinga, Šventoji, Klaipėda, Telšiai, Kaunas, Rumšiškės, and Vilnius. Unfortunately, none remain in the family’s ancestral home; we saw off the last Kniūkšta of Barzdžiai, my brother Juozas, into eternity in 2008. Kniūkšta

Such is the history of the surname Kniūkšta, spanning a century and a half. And if we count from the earlier form of the surname, Kniūpšta, it covers nearly three and a half centuries. Times changed, the surname changed, and its geographical reach expanded and continues to expand. As the saying goes: Tempora mutantur et nos mutamus in illis—times change, and we change with them.

LITERATŪRA

LKŽ VI 1962 – Lietuvių kalbos žodynas 6, Vilnius.

LPŽ I 1985 – A. Vanagas, V. Maciejauskienė, M. Razmukaitė. Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas 1 (A–K), Vilnius.

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WHERE HAS THE SURNAME KNIŪKŠTA COME FROM?

Summary

The Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames (Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas) suggests that the surname Kniūkšta should be related to the adjective kniūkštas and is comparable to the surname Kniūpšta made from the adjective kniūbsčias. Older sources suggest that Kniūkšta might have originated from Kniūpšta. The Salantai church book of the 17^th century does not have a single entry for Kniūkšta; however, it has a patronymic Kniūpštaitis from the village of Barzdžiai, which might indirectly refer to Kniūpšta residing in the same village. The surname Kniūpšta was preserved until the beginning of the 19^th century; its last entry was found in the last decade of the 18^th century in the birth register of the church book of Kalnalis.

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The surname Kniūkšta was recorded in the census of Salantai parish in 1853. However, it had not a single Kniūpšta; the latter surname also disappeared from the villages previously mentioned in the church book of Kalnalis. This might suggest that Kniūkšta was not a new surname but rather made from Kniūpšta. In Salantai parish in the 19^th century the surname Kniūpšta was most frequent in three villages: Barzdžiai, Erlėnai and Juodupėnai. In the middle of the 20^th century it was mostly found in a small area of Lowlanders (žemaičių) between Salantai, Kretinga, Kuliai and Plungė; in the 20^th century the surname spread to the west of Lithuania and major cities of the country.

PRANAS KNIŪKŠTA

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

P. Vileišio g. 5, Vilnius LT–10308

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