The reasons for the dual naming of the river as Neris by the Lithuanians and Viliya (formerly
Velja, meaning "big, great" in Slavic) by the Slavs are complex. Even in
Vilnius, there are
toponyms including both names, e. g.
Neris remains in the riverside names of
Paneriai and
Paneriškės while
Velja is a part of the name
Valakampiai, which means "an angle of Velja" in Lithuanian. In Kaunas, a part of the city by the Neris river, that was formerly a separate town, is also named
Vilijampolė (Vilija + polis, that means "
polis by Vilija"). Although it has been suggested that
Neris is the primeval name of the river, while the name
Viliya is of secondary extraction, Some linguists, however, point to the fact, that Viliya in it upper part is not "big" or "great" at all and the name cognates with
Lithuanian words
velnias and
vėlė. What is more, all the territory of upper Neris before the 12th c. was inhabited by the Balts, the archaeological .
Etymology of "Neris" The name
Neris is of
Baltic origin, a
cognate of the Lithuanian
nerti generally meaning "to dive, swim downstream" as well as "to net,
crochet". It is likely that the name had a more general meaning of "flow" or particularly "swift and swirling flow" in early times. Etymologically, the name is one of a class of
hydronyms, widespread in the modern and prehistoric Baltic ranges; e.g., Lithuanian Narotis, Narasa (rivers),
Narutis (lake), Old Prussian
Narus,
Nara near
Moscow. These are related to Lithuanian
narus, "deep", and
nerti, "to dive". More remote connections are obscure, although the root is believed to be
Indo-European. There are a number of possibilities: •
Pokorny's 2nd
*ner-, "under" (
Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, pp765–766); • Derksen's *, o-grade * (
Slavic Inherited Lexicon); • A relation to the
Greek god Nereus, which may be from *
snau-, "to give milk to", in the sense of "flow" (Partridge,
Origins (1983)). • Another relationship of "Neris" with the Sanskrit word "Neer"/"Naar" which means water. ==Basin==