Muuga (Muuga)

Harbor town a few miles east of Tallinn. Earliest recorded name (1314) was Naystenoia after its river Naisteoja (assumed to mean women’s brook), note too the possible former ‑n genitive, see Nõmme. The ‘river’ or stream, ditch, trickle today known as Käära (see Laiaküla), might have first meant ‘bendy river’ or ‘river on a bend’, despite genitive ‑a not ‑u, but also – as per one of the same name in NW Pärnumaa aka Koera oja – ‘dog river’, which I doubt and suspect to be a more gratifying name-shift; Estonian placenames involving koer (dog) are legion and often trace back to spellings of ambiguous meaning (Koirri, Koora, Kora, Kowre, Kõera, etc.). Village later known (1689) as Muncka, reminiscent of Münkenhof (monastery, former name of Muuga Mõis in Lääne-Virumaa), then Muka (1725) and while muuk:muugi is dialect for ‘monk’, there was also one or more nearby villages called Muka or Muki, becoming Muga in 1798… Muuk:muuga also means tongue-tied, clumsy. Proceed with caution. History very uncertain.