Lithuania is located in Northern Europe and one of the three Baltic states. First mentioned over 1000 years ago, the area was part of various powers over the centuries. Today’s Republic of Lithuania has been existing for almost 30 years.
The Lithuanian cuisine features traditionally among others, potatoes, rye, beets, mushrooms, onions and fish. One popular dish is Cepelinai, which is a dumpling based on potatoes and shaped like Zeppelin.
The most common surname in Lithuania is Kazlauskas.
As in other languages, there are different surnames for the two genders. In the Lithuanian language, the family name is formed out of a “root” and a gender-specific suffix.
For a man, traditionally either -as, -is, -ys, -us, -ė or -a is added. An -ienė is added for married women and a -ytė, -iūtė, -utė or -aitė for unmarried women. So the man of the family “Kazlausk” would be called Kazlauskas, his wife Kazlauskienė and the unmarried daughter “Kazlauskaitė”.
