Samogitians (, Samogitian: Žemaitē, Latvian: žemaiši) are a Baltic ethnic group inhabiting the region of Samogitia in Lithuania. Many speak the Samogitian dialect of the Lithuanian language.

History

Samogitians lived in western Lithuania and were closely related to Semigallians. In 1413, they became the last group of Europeans to convert to Christianity. In 1857, there were 418,824 people with Samogitian ethnicity and 444,921 persons declared Samogitian as their mother tongue in 1897 in Kovno Governorate. Currently Lithuania does not allow for declaration of Samogitian nationality in passports. In list of ethnic groups of Russia there is one person who declared himself with "Zhemaijty"

Exonyms

Samogitians call themselves Žemaitē, though exonyms are used in different languages.