Latvian language
The history of the Latvian language (cf. below) has placed it in a peculiar position for a language of its size whereby it is spoken by a large number of non-native speakers as compared to native speakers. The immigrant and minority population in Latvia is 700,000 people: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, and others. The majority of immigrants came to Latvia between 1940–1991; supplementing pre-existing ethnic minority communities (Latvian Germans, Latvian Jews). In a recent survey, 60% of Latvia's ethnic minorities described their knowledge of Latvian as fluent. Fluency in Latvian is prevalent among the younger generations of the minorities.
Latvian name
Before the emancipation from serfdom (1817 in Courland, 1819 in Vidzeme, 1861 in Latgale) only noblemen, free craftsmen or people living in towns had surnames. Therefore, the oldest Latvian surnames originate from German or Low German, reflecting the dominance of German as an official language in Latvia till the 19th century. Examples: "Meijers/Meijere" (German: "Meier", farm administrator; akin to Mayor), "Millers/Millere" (German: "Müller", miller), "Šmits/Šmite" (German: "Schmidt", smith), "Šulcs/Šulca" (German: "Schulze", constable), "Ulmanis" (German: "Ullmann", a person from Ulm), "Godmanis" (a God-man), "Pētersons" (son of Peter). Some Latvian surnames, mainly from Latgale are of Polish or Belorussian origin by changing the final "-ski/-cki" to "-skis/-ckis", "-czyk" to "-čiks" or "-vich/-wicz" to "-vičs", such as "Sokolovkis/Sokolovska", "Baldunčiks/Baldunčika" or "Ratkevičs/Ratkeviča".