Lithuanian Translation

The hardest thing to explain about a Lithuanian document is the surname. Three members of one family carry three different surnames, and a woman's surname changes when she marries. All of it is grammar, not choice.

4 min readLast updated 1 September 2026

Short answer

Lithuanian surnames take endings according to the bearer's sex and, for women, marital status. If the father is Kazlauskas, his daughter is Kazlauskaitė and his wife Kazlauskienė. All three are the same surname, and none is spelled identically.

Women's surnames: The ending varies with marital status
Alphabet: Latin, 32 letters (ą č ę ė į š ų ū ž)
Grammatical cases: Seven
Apostille: Lithuania and Türkiye are both parties

The surname ending signals marital status

A Lithuanian surname changes form according to who bears it. The male form is the base; a woman's surname derives from it, and the derivational ending shows whether she is married. This is not a stylistic option but how the civil register records it.

Three forms of one surname
Bearer	Ending	Example
Man	-as, -is, -us	Kazlauskas
Married woman	-ienė	Kazlauskienė
Unmarried woman	-aitė, -ytė, -utė, -iūtė	Kazlauskaitė
Status-neutral form	-ė	Kazlauskė

Three forms of one surname

The last row is an option introduced in 2003: women may choose the short form that signals no marital status. So a Lithuanian woman's surname today may take any of three forms, and which one is her own decision.

How many spellings of one surname does a family have?

A Lithuanian family of four may spell its surname in four ways. On documents showing family ties, this is the first thing that confuses an institution.

01
Father
The base form: Kazlauskas. Every other form derives from it.
02
Mother
The married-woman ending: Kazlauskienė. Her surname before marriage may come from an entirely different root.
03
Son
Identical to the father: Kazlauskas. Men's endings do not change.
04
Daughter
The unmarried-woman ending: Kazlauskaitė. On marriage she may take a form derived from her husband's surname.

The translation states explicitly that these four forms belong to one surname. Otherwise a family document appears to show four different surnames and the institution cannot see the family tie.

How foreign names appear on Lithuanian documents

Lithuanian has historically adapted foreign names to its own sound and ending system. A Turkish citizen's name may appear in a Lithuanianised form on a Lithuanian document. Because that will not match the Turkish passport spelling, it creates a matching problem directly.

Forms a Turkish name may take on a Lithuanian document
Turkish name	Lithuanianised form	In the Turkish passport
Mehmet Yılmaz	Mechmetas Jilmazas	MEHMET YILMAZ
Ayşe Demir	Aišė Demir	AYSE DEMIR
Ali Kaya	Alis Kaja	ALI KAYA

Forms a Turkish name may take on a Lithuanian document

Alphabet and case system

The Lithuanian alphabet has 32 letters, including marked letters absent from Turkish: ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž. Passports drop the marks: Šimkus becomes SIMKUS, Ūsas becomes USAS.

The grammar has seven cases, and proper nouns decline too. In a power of attorney the same person's name can appear with different endings in different places; in translation these are reduced to a single nominative form and used consistently throughout.

letters in the Lithuanian alphabet: 32letters in the Lithuanian alphabet
grammatical cases: 7grammatical cases
spellings one surname can take: 4 formsspellings one surname can take

Lithuanian documents and how we render them

Frequently seen documents
Document	What it is	Our approach
Gimimo liudijimas	Birth certificate	Parents' surnames differing in form is normal; a note is added
Santuokos liudijimas	Marriage certificate	Shows the surname chosen after marriage
Asmens tapatybės kortelė	Identity card	The personal code field is stated separately
Pažyma apie teistumą	Criminal record certificate	Its validity period is highlighted
Diplomas / Diplomo priedėlis	Diploma and supplement	Two separate documents

Frequently seen documents

Frequently asked questions

My birth certificate says Kazlauskaitė and my marriage certificate Petrauskienė. How do I prove I am the same person?

The marriage record is what links them. Send both documents together; the translation explains what the endings signal and how the two surnames relate. Some Turkish institutions may also ask for a declaration of name change, so it is worth asking in advance.

My father's surname is Kazlauskas and mine is Kazlauskaitė. Is that the same surname?

Yes. A Lithuanian woman's surname is derived from the male form and the ending is obligatory. They are two forms of one surname. We state this explicitly in the translation; otherwise a family document appears to show father and daughter with different surnames.

Is an apostille enough for a document going to Lithuania?

Yes. Lithuania is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so sworn translation, notarisation and an apostille are valid; consular legalisation is not required.

My name is written in an adapted form on the Lithuanian document. Can you correct it?

A translation cannot change what the document says; it carries across what is there. What we can do is show the spelling in your Turkish passport as well and state that the two forms belong to one person. Changing the spelling on the document itself is a separate application to the Lithuanian authorities.