Forum: Author Hangout

I queried it for Latvian names, and it indeed gives a good selection of first names that are indeed Latvian, both unique Latvian and also common and Russian names in Latvian transcription. Some other generator I saw failed miserably.

(Although, it's actually very easy to harvest Latvian names if you know where to look, as we have such a thing as namesdays calendar online, and the extended version of that contains literally every name and variation registered and found acceptable by Latvian Language Commission in a single pdf table.)

But then it seems they only have just a handful (literally, like 8 or so) of surnames for Latvian names, and one of them with an error (taken from an NHL shirt likely), and of course it ignores that females would have feminine grammatical gender endings on their surnames (surnames being declined nouns in Latvian).

declined nouns

"What does decline mean in grammar?
decline verb (GRAMMAR)
If a noun, pronoun, or adjective declines, it has different forms to show if it is the subject or object, etc. of a verb or if it is singular or plural, etc. If you decline such a word, you list its various forms: In Latin we learned how to decline nouns."

If you refuse to decline, you decline to decline. And then there is conjugation.
"con·ju·ga·tion
/ˌkänjəˈɡāSH(ə)n/

noun
1. GRAMMAR
the variation of the form of a verb in an inflected language such as Latin, by which are identified the voice, mood, tense, number, and person.
2. BIOLOGY
the temporary union of two bacteria or unicellular organisms for the exchange of genetic material."

(Very small critters having sex.)

In Latin we learned how to decline nouns.

And so we do in Latvian, and names are no exclusion.

Male and female forms of the same root will be in different declension groups, and will be inflected differently.

Now since you wanted grammar lessons...

Nominative singular:

Kristaps Avots is a man.

Kristīne Avota is a woman.

This shows up in documents! And that's the extent I could ask of excellent national name generator.

However using male form for female nominative becomes more permissible due to international pressure, because, yes, wife's and husband's surnames are not likely to be completely identical in passports. Some are, where male and female forms happen to be identical more naturally, like for example taking female nominative for masculine:

Pauls Egle is a man.

Paula Egle is a woman.

Genitive:

Kristapa Avota wife is Kristīne.

Kristīnes Avotas husband is Kristaps

Dative:

We asked questions Kristapam Avotam, Kritīnei Avotai, Paulam Eglem, Paulai Eglei.

Accusative:

We invited Kristapu Avotu and Kristīni Avotu.

Instrumental we are losing right now. Other than requiring preposition "ar" [with] it coincides with accusative in singular and dative in plural.

Locative:

Something is [within] Kristapā Avotā or Kristīnē Avotā.

Vocative:

Kristap Avot, Kristīn Avot, please proceed to the office.

As a couple they are Kristaps and Kristīne Avoti, but Kristīne and her unmarried daughters together are Avotas. We send letters to, or travel with Avotiem or Avotām, and are guests in Avotu house.

Lithuanians until very recently distinguished between married and unmarried women right in the surname. As an archaic construction, the special married form is mostly possible in Latvian too. The accomplished matriarch of Avotu house may or may not take offense when referred as Avotiene.

Pauls Egle is a man.

Paula Egle is a woman.

So in your example 'Egle' is a surname.
Can it be a given name too?
I think of a model named Egle Jurcaite Fischer.

HM.

On YouTube there is an excellent interview of Elton John by Rowen Atkinson. It touches on this.

Elton John interviewed by Mister Bean AKA Blackadder?!?

I'll be back later. I MUST go find it!!!

Back on an edit...

Best Interview Ever!!!

So in your example 'Egle' is a surname.

Can it be a given name too?

It is just a feminine noun meaning "spruce."

I went to check (had little doubts as I happen not to know any girl named so), and indeed, it is used as a given name in Latvian, it's even a calendar name (January 24: Krišs, Ksenija, Eglons, Egle) meaning it's either popular enough or protected as traditional. Even the proper male form Eglis is registered as a given name too, but resides in the extended list (with rarities and oddities).

Funny, as a surname I made it up on the fly for illustration and when now went to verify is it actually in the wild, found it popular in language examples and tips. There are some real persons with it too, but the diminutive form Eglītis/Eglīte is much more popular surname, as is Egliens/Egliena (Egliens translates as spruce-groove or spruce-woodland (although proper spruce dominated forest is 'sils')).

I think of a model named Egle Jurcaite Fischer.

With zero knowledge I guess she's Lithuanian? Jurcaite pretty much gives it away, that sounds very Lithuanian (actually must be maiden's name rather than second name, and egle is still spruce in Lithuanian). Probably married to an anglophone? Fischer doesn't give out much.

Fischer doesn't give out much.

Nuts?

With zero knowledge I guess she's Lithuanian?

I didn't find her marital status or anything about her parents. (I admit I was more interested in her pictures)

Born and raised in Lithuania, the beautiful model has been published in several international editions of Playboy—she's known in Croatia, Bulgaria and France, to name a few countries. Egle's unusual name has a deep meaning in Lithuanian mythology—as legend has it, a woman named Egle married a mythical serpent. Like a snake, Miss Fischer has the ability to hypnotize, but lucky for us, she's one hundred percent beautiful human woman.

I assumed Fischer is her surname, coming from a German forefather from the time of the German colonization during the era of the State of the Teutonic Order.

HM.

I assumed Fischer is her surname, coming from a German forefather from the time of the German colonization during the era of the State of the Teutonic Order.

You're confusing the very different histories of the sister nations, Lithuanians and Latvians.

Quite a few French soldiers starved to death in Lithuania, with was part of Russian Empire during Napoleon's adventure that ended at Moscow thanks to trickery of one Latvia born Baltic-German guy, but the only times Lithuania was occupied by germans were short spans during world wars of twenty century.

While Teutonic Knights colonized Prussia, and using local infighting for great effect, Livonian Order subjugated roughly what is now Latvia and Estonia, Lithuanian king Mindaugas baptized as Catholic in vain hopes to end hostilities with crusaders because he faced much greater threat in the east. Waging war in three fronts he won and expanded, and Grand Dutchy of Lithuania became largest country in Europe during 14th century. If you ever wondered who stopped mongol-tatar invasion in Europe, now you know.

Thanks to Lithuania there was no land bridge for Germanic colonists to reach Latvia and Estonia, allowing peasantry to remain completely disjointed ethnic strata.

Back to names.

Jurcaite is definitely a surname, in its unmarried female form. I took a look around, and while I got only one direct alternative hit (a YouTube user) the married form Jurciene had plenty. Male form is evidently Jurcius (it took some digging).

Whatever Fischer is (it may be stage name, making her Fischer, the Spruce of Sea (although that's somewhat wild interpretation jumping far on the jūr- root)), it must be attached and kept for contemporary international usage. Ever processed for ID documents in Lithuania it would come out transcribed and adapted as Fišeriene if the guy is her husband or either Fišeraite or Fišerīte if it is her father's surname. Yes, we do that. In any Latvian language text she would be referred as Fišere and the hypothetical guy as Fišers. It wasn't until 2003 one girl won a court case against her surname having that -iene attached, and then only on the grounds her husband's surname she changed to was of Latvian origin. We here hold grammar above human rights. ;P

Oh, and by the way, regarding

...mythical serpent. Like a snake, Miss Fischer has the ability to hypnotize, but lucky for us, she's one hundred percent beautiful human woman.

Don't be too relieved about it. I don't know the myth she refer, but snakes, especially grass snake zalktis is held as sacred in Latvian tradition too. Eyes of a serpent, especially of a viper, is a characteristic of a witch. Then saying witch I mean ragana, and think about girls like those: https://youtu.be/LsgO5OTUsRU

Then saying witch I mean ragana, and think about girls like those:

First time I've seen a bicycle sprocket worn as a satanic symbol, actually kind of pretty.

Now if the rituals included wearing far fewer clothes and the girls were bi....

First time I've seen a bicycle sprocket worn as a satanic symbol, actually kind of pretty.

It's just how fucking playful they are! The adornments, crowns, dresses, dance moves and music, it all is mockery of the traditional, all except the song itself, and it all together still is so strong and authentic. Even that sprocket, what better symbol you could find for the cyclinc nature of time depicting the Sun?

Now if the rituals included wearing far fewer clothes and the girls were bi....

They are supposed to wash in morning dew at sunrise of summer solstice, to be even more beautiful than they are...

...but are you brave or stupid enough to try to watch that?

And that's what the song is about, it's actually a defensive chant to protect fertility blessings of the summer solstice night from being stolen.

Attempt to translate a spell can't succeed, but it goes somewhat like this:

"It's truth, not a lie, [not just] old folk's rumor, solstice night girls went to be witches, she-werewolves! It's solstice night tonight! Who owns that night? Witches, she-werewolves, they own the night! Run witch trough the air, not in my yard!

"My yard forged in iron, roofs covered in needles! Roofs in needles, rafters made from scythes! By needles stabbed, by scythes cut! Butler milk rivers flow in my cow's barn! In my cow's barn, envious broke his neck! Nine witches there, faerie daughters drown [to death] without the sun in the evening!"

Yeah, it's witchcraft wars under the cover of darkness of the shortest night of the year, and that's why men need to maintain the bonfire. But the magic flower of fern bloom that night if you go search for it together with the right person.

...but are you brave or stupid enough to try to watch that?

Brave isn't for me to say, but stupid I can do. :)

Watch..?? I'd join in...!!