Theory and practice of rendering foreign proper names into lithuanian and latvian

The article aims to study theoretical provisions of rendering foreign personal names into the related Lithuanian and Latvian languages and to compare their practical implementations. In Lithuanian, the general practice is that of using a source language form of the name, with fewer cases of their adaptation to the rules of Lithuanian spelling and pronunciation. Yet still, there is an ongoing discussion in Lithuania whether the norms of such adaptation require revision. It should also be noted that the usage of personal names in the Lithuanian language depends on the functional style of the text. In the Latvian language, the tradition has established to write proper names in letters of Latvian alphabet, conveying the specificity of their pronunciation, if possible. In addition, such cases are subject to the general rules of names and surnames usage in the Latvian language, that is, foreign personal names are spelt according to the grammatical norms of the Latvian language. The comparative analysis of foreign personal names rendering strategies in both Baltic languages has found the trend of using source language forms to prevail in Lithuanian (this extends even to Latvian personal names, which, by now, were exceptionally adapted). In Latvia, currently, the theoretically founded and established norms are at no risk of rejection. However, despite the long-term and deliberate pursuit for standardization and alignment of foreign names translation methods in the Latvian language (with guidelines issued, etc.), in practice, there are still considerable constraints to that. The article addresses some of them.