Names
Osmussaare (Osmussaar)
Lit. ‘malm island’ (its Swedish name of Odensholm, or Odin’s grave, is more romantic). Island 7.5 km off the NW coast of Estonia, 4 km long, uninhabited since the Soviet deportation of 12 farming families, now a nature reserve. Part of an Estonian island group, see Saaremaa.
Oti (Ott)
Man’s name, and old name for bear, with evidently an alternative genitive in the town of Otepää (bear’s head), location of historical hillfort (first recorded in the Novgorod First Chronicle as Медвѣжю голову, or Медвежья Голова (bear’s head) in modern Russian, for the year 1116) in southern Estonia and, hard to believe, not used to name a single Tallinn street. The spelling of pää, incidentally, was recommended in 1871 by Jakob Hurt, linguist and “father/king of Estonian folklore”, who served there as pastor at one time, to replace the northern dialect form pea (likewise hää for hea), but it failed to catch on. His face is on the 10-krooni note (for information on Estonian currency, see Krooni). Not unexpectedly, given its location in an essentially fish-named area, an old farm name, but see Otsatalu.
Otsa G. (Georg Ots, 1920-1975)
Estonian baritone, beautiful, smooth voice. Born in Petrograd, son of Kaarel Ots, another renowned tenor. Best known for his title role in Rubinstein’s The Demon. And a pretty good swimmer too, winning various national championships and breaking the 800-m record in 1939. Lucky lad has a taxi rank named after him too.
