Names
Kentmanni
(Wilhelm Gottfried Kentmann, ca.1800-ca.1874)
Pedagogue and headmaster of a charity school for poor children (Luthers Armenschule, funded by Christian Luther) from 1830-1874 (attended, among others, by Bornhöhe E. and Vilde E.). The street was also named for short periods (1939-1940 & 1941-1944) after Konstantin Päts (trivia drop: päts, or loaf of (corn)bread, is a possible cognate of Georgian ფეჩი, peči or ‘cast-iron stove’ and the street is 350 m from Ahju), 1st President of the Republic of Estonia (died 1956 at a Soviet psychiatric hospital while undergoing a rest for the insanity of believing he actually was President of the Republic of Estonia), interspersed by Kreuksi J. in the Soviet occupation (1940-1941 & 1944-1989) and, seemingly but uncertainly, a brief, few-day interlude in 1942 after Hermann Göring. Street namesake often confused Kentmann senior and junior, the latter, Woldemar Friedrich, was author of Koolilaste Geograahwia raamat (Geography book for schoolchildren, 1875) and Geograahwia kaardid koolilaste geograahwia-raamatu lisaks (Maps for a geography textbook, 1884).
Kerese P.
(Paul Keres, 1916-1975)
Estonian Chess-Master, for some, the “Paganini of chess”, for Spassky the “Pope of chess”, for others, a face on a 5-krooni note (for information on Estonian currency, see Krooni). Chess in Estonian is male, a word invented by Ado Grenzstein in the late 19th C. Street replacing and/or extending the SE section of Õie in 1976.
Kesa (Kesa)
Fallow. Street perpendicular to Mullamaa.
Kesalille (Kesalill)
Mayweed. Two species in Estonia:
- harilik kesalill, scentless/false mayweed, etc., Tripleurospermum inodorum
- rand-kesalill, false or sea mayweed, T. maritimum
One of a meadow flower or grass group. See Koldrohu.
Kesk-Ameerika (Kesk-Ameerika)
Central America. Give or take a meter or two, connects Suur-Ameerika and Väike-Ameerika. Once known (1913) as Neue Alimannstraße (don’t ask) whose single claim to fame is a 1911-11-09 newspaper report that, paraphrasing, Wäsche wird gestohlen, some laundry was nicked from No.28. Renamed (1959-1991), apparently bizarrely (but actually fitting into a ‘skyscape’ group), as Kuu during the Soviet occupation.
