Names
Muuga (Muuga)
Harbor town a few miles east of Tallinn. Earliest recorded name (1314) was Naystenoia after its river Naisteoja (assumed to mean women’s brook), note too the possible former ‑n genitive, see Nõmme. The ‘river’ or stream, ditch, trickle today known as Käära (see Laiaküla), might have first meant ‘bendy river’ or ‘river on a bend’, despite genitive ‑a not ‑u, but also – as per one of the same name in NW Pärnumaa aka Koera oja – ‘dog river’, which I doubt and suspect to be a more gratifying name-shift; Estonian placenames involving koer (dog) are legion and often trace back to spellings of ambiguous meaning (Koirri, Koora, Kora, Kowre, Kõera, etc.). Village later known (1689) as Muncka, reminiscent of Münkenhof (monastery, former name of Muuga Mõis in Lääne-Virumaa), then Muka (1725) and while muuk:muugi is dialect for ‘monk’, there was also one or more nearby villages called Muka or Muki, becoming Muga in 1798… Muuk:muuga also means tongue-tied, clumsy. Proceed with caution. History very uncertain.
Müürivahe (Müürivahe)
Between the (city) walls. Müüri, however, is singular, so maybe ‘space behind the city wall’ (i.e. the arcades) would be a better rendering, although given its earlier German name of Zwischen den Mauern (between the walls) it might have been shortened from Müüridevahe, implying between the city wall and the row of houses opposite (or another one-time parallel wall?). Also Soviet occupation renaming (1950-1987) of Munga. At one stage is was also known as Tynnepattenstrate, perhaps after Michel Tynnepatten whose house (in this street?) was, for some reason, acquired by the city, ca. 1541. There are rumors of a one-time brothel called Punane Klooster (red cloister) there, but whether named as a “Get thee to a nunnery” type allusion where ‘nunnery’ was Elizabethan English for brothel, or because rented out by a convent (see Rataskaevu), is not clear.
