Gedgaudas proposes that the word "Aisčiai" (Aesti), with which the Balts call themselves (the word is related to the Latvian words "Ists" or "Istenieks", meaning "companion" or "consanguineous"), was a cognate of the Lithuanian verb "eiti", which means "go, walk", and of Greek "Aistos" and Slavic "Aisr", ancient names for storks which are migratory birds.