Streetsign reading "Tallinn Streets dot com" Header

Work in progress

A pile of ro ad signs half-trashed and piled up on a building-site, to indicate the site is in construction.

Website under construction, a couple of entries still pending, no photos with the streets yet, layout not finalized...

This started with a book (last few pages under review) and so far 1889 of the 1891 articles entered, 1 or 2 links may go nowhere.

Logo of the Tallinn Children's Hospital Foundation

The Book

All author earnings of A Rambling Dictionary of Tallinn Street Names to be donated to the foundation or donate here.

If anyone could help or advise as to the legal mechanism, it would be appreciated, thanks!

The Website

Not intended at the beginning, the present website is taking on a life of its own, with plans for relevant discussion forums, picture galleries and, over time, more non-streetname entries.

In theory, it will be funded by advertising relevant to people in Tallinn, to be determined.

A percentage of profits (also to be determined) to be donated to the foundation. 

Contact

Photograph of Simon Hamilton in Pikk street, Tallinn.

Apparently, a company that uses its owner's name is considered more trustworthy because they put themselves on the line.

This is me, in Tallinn this spring (2025), on a 3-month spree to check details, take photos (about 12K), explore (ave. 15K/day), and so on. I think I covered every street in Kesklinn (apart from Mõigu), most of Põhja-Tallinn and some Kristiine.

For information, please contact Simon at this address dot com, thanks!

Names

Graniidi (Graniit)

Granite. After local depot of paving- and other stones imported from Finland.

Grusbeke-tagune torn (0): Symbol designating a Point of Interest.

Tower Behind Grusbeke’s, after Ar[e]nd Grusbeken / Gruzebeke, 15th C, said to be a wealthy burgher of Tallinn, recorded, amongst other things, as borrowing 50 marks from Arnd Saffenberch in 1428, using his house near Oleviste as security. Tower referred to as by Gruszeken in 1509, so he presumably lived nearby. See also Hattorpe-tagune torn.

Gümnaasiumi (Gümnaasium)

Secondary school, high school. After the Gustav Adolf Gümnaasium, GAG, in nearby Suur-Kloostri, one of Estonia’s and Europe’s oldest secondary schools, founded by Swedish king Gustav II Adolf as the Reval Gymnasium in 1631. Built on a former catholic monastery. 

Linnaosa vapp Haabersti / coat of arms of the Haabersti district, TallinnHaabersti (?) Symbol designating a Tallinn "Linnaosa", or District. Symbol designating a Tallinn "Asum", or Sub-district.

Manor house closish to Tallinn center, roughly on the site of the present-day zoo. First recorded in relation to a Tonnies Haberes / Habers / Habris / Habres from a nearby village Lahepea (qv.) and apparently renamed in German as Habers Hof (Oat Manor) in 1557, assumed to be derived from the German Hafer (oats). But there is no clear evidence that Tonnies’ ‘surname’ reflected a contemporary relationship, professional or romantic, with oats. How many Smiths do you know who earn their living as farriers, etc.? Street previously written Haawersti (1920), Haberscher Weg and Hawersche Straße. It must also rank as one of Tallinn’s more devious addresses: If you live in Haabersti, is it the street, the Sub-district (asum), or the District (linnaosa)? It is also the only occurrence in Tallinn where a street is in, and only in, an identically-named District and Sub-district. The other two contenders, Mustamäe and Pirita, spill onto their respective neighbors. One of Tallinn’s 8 Districts (Linnaosad). It includes the following Asumid (Sub-districts): Astangu, Haabersti, Kakumäe, Mustjõe, Mäeküla, Pikaliiva, Rocca al Mare, Tiskre, Veskimetsa, Vismeistri, Väike-Õismäe and Õismäe.

Haava (Haab)

Two species: harilik haab, common or trembling aspen, Populus tremula – the trembling is due to the flat petioles allowing the slightest breeze to move the leaves, improving exposure to the sun (and perhaps shaking off hungry insects?) – and hõbepappel or hõbehaab, white poplar, Populus alba. Same muddle in both languages as to name, and both seem accepted, haab or pappel, and poplar or aspen. Haava is also the genitive of haav, meaning wound.

Haaviku (Haavik)

Aspen grove. See Aaviku.

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