first names were often truncated. For example, poet Imants Ziedonis was officially called Imant Yanovich Ziedonis (Имант Янович Зиедонис) In the 20th century, in particular, in the interbellum period of the Latvian national movement and during the Ulmanis authoritarian regime in the late 1930s, when Baltic Germans left Latvia, there was a tendency to change the Germanic names back to their Latvian origins or to adopt Latvian versions. In one such example Minister of Interior Kornēlijs Veitmanis became Kornēlijs Veidnieks. Name day Latvia is among the European countries that celebrate name days (vārda dienas), a celebration almost comparable in importance to that of a birthday. Most of them are related to the Saints' days in the Church calendar, but in recent decades new names have been added to the calendar by a special commission. Some names and their name days bear a connection with important holidays, for example, arguably one of the most important holidays, summer solstice, referred to as Jāņi starts on June 23 with Līgo diena (name day for females named Līga) and continues through June 24 or Jāņi – name day for males named Jānis. Similarly Mārtiņi on November 10 coincides with the name day for males named Mārtiņš, Mārcis and Markuss. Most common Latvian names Below are the most common ethnic Latvian names in 2006. However taking into account the large Eastern Slavic diaspora (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) that make up around one third of Latvia's population, names popular among the Slavic population make it high on this list, for example, the most popular male name in Russia Aleksandr (or Aleksandrs in its Latvian rendition) makes it as the second most common name in Latvia if all ethnicities are counted. References External links Top 100 Latvian Names of Past 100 Years. Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia Names by culture