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

Naadi (Naat)

Goutweed, ground elder, snow-on-the-mountain, bishop’s weed, Aegopodium podagraria. One of the Mähe flower-name group, see Neiuvaiba.

Naaritsa (Naarits)

Mink. Native to Estonia, and wild in Hiiumaa, is the Euroopa naarits, European mink, Mustela lutreola. For the American mink, Neovison vison, see Mingi. One of Pääskula’s woodland mammal group. See Nugise.

Nabra (Naber)

Word of conflicting meaning: either a shock/stook, or a stack; the difference here seeming to depend on size, where the shock/stook synonyms are primary bundles of sheaves, and the stack is a larger heap or bundle of some 20 or more (see Vihu). Usually specified according to crop, e.g. rukkinaber or odranaber (stook of rye or barley), both of which are preferable on your land to idanabrid (see Teisepere). Or, again, it could be a pile or mound of the grain itself. Given its probable original loan from a Rus. dialectal набóр (nabór, ±‘set’), the former seems more likely. Part of a fodder and staples street-name group. See Orase.

Naeri (Naeris)

Turnip. Another of a mini edible staples group. See also Oa.

Nafta (Nafta)

Mineral oil, petroleum, naphtha. Part of an oil street-name group. See also Petrooleumi. Street named in 1933, 2nd year of the great Soviet famine, sinkhole of soviet aspirations.

Nahhimovi P.

(Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov, 1802-1855)

Famed 19th‑C Russian admiral, commander at the Siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War. Soviet occupation renaming (1953-1990) of Erika.

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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.