 In 1934 the town was renamed "Kudirkos Naumiestis" in honor of the Lithuanian patriot, Vincas Kudirka, who lived there from 1895 to 1899.A well-organized Jewish community also lived in there and produced a number of prominent rabbis and Jewish scholars.Its name in Yiddish was נײַשטאָט־שאַקי (Nayshtot-Shaki).