Names
Viki (Vikk)
1) Common vetch; 2) limestone paste; 3) bung, spigot; 4) All that for nothing, ‘street’ no longer exists... Anagram of Kivi. Nevertheless, the English term ‘vetch’ cannot but instantly remind one of the genial Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811), scientist, geographer, and explorer, one of the precursor thinkers of Darwin’s theory of evolution and discoverer of numerous plant and animal (the cat, obviously) species, not to mention Ammodytes hexapterus, the sand eel, väike tobias (‘little Toby’, but see Nigli), which he mistook for a mollusk (we may forgive him) and, I’m getting there, the vetch Astragalus alopecurus. Odd, this is not a street. For some, perhaps an abbreviation for the so-called Vikimõisa ‘Ward’, for others, an underhand addition to a paper map designed to trap plagiarists.
NB: If anyone can help me get my greasy hands on Pallas’ multilingual dictionary I would be exceedingly grateful to the extent of rewarding said person with cash and/or a pint, whichever you can afford to buy me ;o)
Vikimõisa (Vikimõis) 
Uncertain 2023 addition to Tallinn’s streets, if street inded it is. Information elusive. Related to a former manor house near the Harku lake, named after whichever whim went through its benighted owners’ minds:
- 1798: Cramers Höfchen (‘Cramer’s court’, translated as suvemõis (summer manor), belonging to a customs inspector called Johann Cramer of various misspellings (Cramer, Kraamle, Krameri…)
- Early 1800s: Birkenhof
- 1871: Fick aka Viki which could be one of the various poolmõis (see Mõisa), after, apparently, a pharmacist Eduard Wilhelm Fick
As to its possible allasum (Ward) status or identity, nothing is clear: once pin-pointed in XGis, now it’s putting out ‘loves you’ / ‘loves you not’ signals and I’m not ready to stalk. Pending official update.
Vilde E.
(Eduard Vilde, 1865-1933)
Prolific writer (33 volumes of novels, stories, plays, travelogues and humorous pieces), considered the first modern European in Estonia, and acclaimed as one of its greatest writers. See Piimamehe. A lifelong moderate socialist, Wilde spent three weeks on Ellis Island in 1911 while the Americans sniffed his credentials. There is a sculpture of him sitting next to his namealike Oscar Wilde outside the former Wilde printing house, now pub, in Vallikraavi (moat, counterscarp) in Tartu. See also Mahtra.
