Names
Ronga (Ronk)
Also known as Kaaren (see Kaarna), the common raven, or just plain raven, or corbie, Corvus corax. Name of Baltic-Finnish origin, cognate of Livonian kronk and related to both Livvi-Karelian kronkuttua and Lithuanian krankti, to croak. Why a language obsessed with the letter ‘k’ (about 15% of Estonian words begin with this) would drop it is curious. Part of the Lilleküla bird-name group of streets. See also Rähni.
Rõngasjärv (0)
Ring lake, due to its not quite circular shape with a not quite circular island in the middle. Name officialised in 2023 despite numerous votes for naming it after Ants Antson, Estonian speed skater, who – legend has it – used to skate around it, or for whom the ring was dug… Rõngas, incidentally, seems to be a 5000-year-old loan from Germanic. No street, just a lake.
Roo (Roog)
Given the street-zone: reed, cane, or suchlike material used for thatching. Also designates the rasping final note of a cockcrow (that’s Doo to you) and, for rood:roo, fishbone or bony framework of the nose (yes, they have a word for that). Part of a fodder and staples street-name group, see Söödi. Formerly Alberti (1910-1939) after Albert Koba (see Tarabella and Timuti).
Roolahe (Roolaht)
Reedy cove.
Rõõmu (Rõõm)
Joy, pleasure, delight. Surely that of being next to Lemmiku.
Roopa (Roobas)
Rail or rut. Here: railway. Interesting word: while ‘rut’ is the primary meaning, both literally and metaphorically, it is also closely paired with rööpa:rööbas, ‘rail’ as in trains or trams, and believed to originate from a sense of ‘sticking-out-i-ness’ as in ‘pile of stones or ice’, ‘edge of ice’, ‘frozen lump of snow’, evolving into ‘track or depression in the road’, with tramlines being the nice fit between raised and sunken. Street originated with Starcksche Straße (1875) after local surveyor Robert Starck who built the street on his land near Tehnika, switching into Raudtee aaru (prob. alt. spelling of Aru, dry, upland meadow), then various versions of increasingly Estonianized German for railway track: Schienenstraße (1907-1942), Shiini (1908), Schiini (1908-1921), Siini ( 1923) till the good ole Soviet regime decided on Tiivase A. (1959-1960), a one-time Bolshevik and member of the Tallinn Soviet.
