Trepi (Trepp)

Staircase, flight of stairs, doorsteps. Two versions: town-center version once known as Sunte Nyclawes stegel (St Nicolas’s steps), later switching to a name closer to the German heart, Unter den Linden (1890), Russified as Подъ Липовая (Pod Lipovaya, ditto) then back to Kirchenstegel (church steps) and Estonified as Väike-Niine (1913), the Trepi tänav off Harju was destroyed in 1944, and re-built, re-named and re‑opened on 20 August 2007 as Nõelasilm.  Probably pure coincidence that the first part of this name relates to the Sunte Nyclawes stegel above.The other version, in Nõmme, renamed in 1940-41 as Astme, another name (aste) for step (or degree, grade, rank, etc.), and essentially a foot- or cycling path, starts with not one but two separate flights of steps, revealing, if nothing else, the dazzling excitement of place-name studies…