Iš kur Kniūkštų pavardė
Where has the surname Kniūkšta come from?

Summary/Abstract: The Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames (Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas) suggests that the surname Kniūkštà should be related to the adjective kniūkštas and is comparable to the surname Kniūpštà made from the adjective kniūbsčias. Older sources suggest that Kniūkšta might have originated from Kniūpšta. The Salantai church book of the 17th 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 19th century; its last entry was found in the last decade of the 18th century in the birth register of the church book of Kalnalis. 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 19th century the surname Kniūpšta was most frequent in three villages: Barzdžiai, Erlėnai and Juodupėnai. In the middle of the 20th century it was mostly found in a small area of Lowlanders (žemaičių) between Salantai, Kretinga, Kuliai and Plungė; in the 20th century the surname spread to the west of Lithuania and major cities of the country.

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