Kaniava is a village in ,

Varėna district municipality Varėna (; pl, Orany; yi, אוראַן ''Oran'') is a city in Dzūkija, Lithuania. History The town was founded in 1862 near the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway, south of Sena Varėna (Old Varėna). At that time it was a small settleme ...

Alytus County Alytus County ( lt, Alytaus apskritis) is one of ten counties of Lithuania, counties in Lithuania. It is the southernmost county, and its Capital (political), capital is the city of Alytus. Its territory lies within the Regions of Lithuania, et ...

, southeastern

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. According to the 2001 census, the village had a population of 39 people. At the 2011 census, the population was 23.

Etymology

The name ''Kaniava'' is of unclear origin. It may come from the river of the same name (Kaniava River, Kaniavėlė River) which may be of Finno-Ugric descent (for example, from et, kaan 'a

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

') or may be same origin as Slavic words ''kanja, kania'', каня 'a buzzard. Otherwise, the village name may be of prior origin and could come from

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

s: lt, Kãniava, Kaniáuka, Kanáuka, Kãniovas, be, Конеў, russian: Конев which ultimately descends from Slavic конь 'a horse'. It could be even a common name ''kaniava'', конеў which could mean 'a stableman'.

References

Villages in Varėna District Municipality Nowogródek Voivodeship (1919–1939) {{Varėna-geo-stub