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, many entries missing, no photos with the streets yet, layout not finalized...

This started with a book (last few pages under review) and so far 1814 of the 1884 articles (A to Z, with 50-odd Ts remaining) entered so far, so some 5% of the links 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

Köismäe

Köismäe (Köismägi) Symbol designating a city monument.

Rope hill, named after a former locality of that name specialized in its manufacture, the German equivalent of which is Hamburg’s well-known Reeperbahn meaning “long, open space for rope-making” (MLG rēpærebāne composed of: a) rēpære, sail-maker, from rēp, rope, cord, strand, etc., cf. mod. Ger. Reep (cf. Eng. rope), used only today by sailors, while Seil, a modern term for rope (alongside Tau), from sēl cognate with sēgel, mod Ger. Segel (sail) seems to have shifted meaning from sail to rope, as did ‘sheet’ in Eng. (see Soodi), and b) ‑bahn, which has nothing to do with today’s ‘station’ (although it is the same root) but from MLG bāne, bān meaning “(long/wide), open space” (see Suur-Patarei and Luite). The põik and tee have gone the way of all stone and all that remains is a tower at Laboratooriumi 27 in the old city wall.

Köismäe torn

Köismäe (Köismägi) torn

Rope hill tower. Standing between Plate and Loewenschede towers and built around 1360, the tower was named after the nearby rope-making industry (see Köismäe).

Kõivu

Kõivu (Kõiv)

Alternative, dialectical and/or Võro* term for Kase (cf. koivu in Finnish, kõuv in Livonian, and koiv in Veps). Counterpart in antiquity to Lõhmuse. Variants include arukõiv (see Arukaskede); marokõiv (see Kase [above]), and sookõiv (see Sookaskede). Tree/shrub group, see Leedri.

* Strictly, Võru, but the ‑o ending is proper to the Võro language/dialect, and was also proposed by Hurt (see Oti) as part of the Estonian language reform (see also Aate) to replace the ‑u ending, but it didn’t catch on.

  1. Kõla
  2. Kolde
  3. Koldrohu
  4. Köleri J.

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Wanted!

Beautiful photos of your street or Tallinn! Send them in! No remuneration planned for now, but will be attributed according to your preferences.