Names
Randvere (Randvere)
Road leading to village of that name, first recorded (1397) as Randyver, and inhabited by Swedish immigrants from 13th C on. Rand, here, presumably straight from Swedish for ‘shore’ or ‘beach’ (see Ranna) and although the ‑vere part may well look etymologically Estonian (see Aedvere), it may equaly be a loan from Swedish över, above (cognate with Old Norse yfir, modern English over (but also old English ofer, border or edge, hinting at a fortuitous association between King Offa and ‘his’ eponymous dyke) and German Ufer, bank, shore, better reflected in the origin of Hanover, formerly Honovere, from Hohes Ufer / (am) hohen Ufer, on the upper bank), in the ‘safe’ sense of ‘above’, ‘beyond’ or ‘upon’. So the name may well have meant ‘above the beach’ with what I’d call ‘lexical sprawl’ and linguists, probably, phono-semantic matching, accounting for its shift to the more Estonian-sounding ‑vere. In the 600-odd years since its existence, its name has routinely mutated from Randyfer through Randele, Raudever, Randever, Randeuere, Randaver, Randeuer, Randyuer, Randel, Randeuver, Randekull, Ranneuer, Ranneuerkull, Ranneuer, Ranneferde, Rannefer, Randafer, Randfer, Randwer, Randwerre, Rangdfer to Randvere, and the ‑vere ending may well have been influenced by the curved shape of the beach in question, with Wiedemann recording wēre as Neigung (slope), Wendung (turn) and Beugung (bend), all of which would apply. Interestingly, close to the crossing with the serendipitously named Keeru was once a farm called Kroodi, presumably after the nearby Kroodi gulch, a site inhabited as early as 5000 BCE.
Rangu (Rank?)
Reportedly a name related to haymaking, a stack/stook of stale or musty hay (Nerman & Lõhmus, but word neither found nor conclusive, despite its being named in 2000*. Viires translates rank as ‘trough’ (W. Est. dialect, but provides no genitive) where ranga seems a more common genitive anyway; Forssmann gives rank:ranga as boulder, rock or obstacle; Wiedemann rank:rangi, also trough, or row (of plants), or cross-references rank:ranga to ränk which doesn’t get us very far either, and not a genitive ‑u in sight. At one stage in my sorry past, I found a rank:rangu for ‘ridge or ‘rocky bank’ and a Muhu dialect term for fly, now vanished from the face of the cloud and which we can probably disregard. Plus a Rangu village in Raplamaa, poss. originating from the German name Rank. Unresolved. Mini hay-and-harvest group. See Saadu.
* A possible example of Hamilton’s 4th Law, where very recent naming may borrow terms which might have existed prior to written record if not usage ;o)
Räni (Räni)
Silicon. Street hovering between existence (1959) and virtuality (2013) in town-planners’ minds and builders’ pockets. Known previously as Kotka (Adlerstraße / Орлиная ул), and Надеждинская (1925) (Nadežda), but who this was is not clear: Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin’s second wife, who committed suicide 7 years’ later at the age of 31? Or just Nadežda, Russian for ‘hope’?
