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Sibulaküla (Sibulaküla) 
Onion village. Named after the small plots of ‘farmland’ or allotments around the Kaasani orthodox church, many of which grew onions, or after the church’s typical onion-shaped dome. The church – completed in 1721, severely damaged during the March 1944 bombing, icons looted in the 1970s, and partially burnt down on the night of 2009-07-15 – remains the oldest surviving wooden church in Tallinn. Its cemetery was probably destroyed in the early 1770s along with others in Tallinn following the Moscow plague riots of 1771. See Mõigu.
Rõngasjärv (0)
Ring lake, due to its not quite circular shape with a not quite circular island in the middle. Name officialised in 2023 despite numerous votes for naming it after Ants Antson, Estonian speed skater, who – legend has it – used to skate around it, or for whom the ring was dug… Rõngas, incidentally, seems to be a 5000-year-old loan from Germanic. No street, just a lake.
Ristaia (Ristaed)
Garden of the cross. Possibly a poetic way of saying Gethsemane (although this probably just meant ‘olive grove’), but named after nearby lake, itself probably named after nearby Pärnamäe cemetery to which the road leads. Were things so simple. The highways authority seems to have known the road as Jäätmejaama, waste-processing station, to which it also leads.
Raudalu (Raudalu)
No street, Sub-district only. In the early 19th C, there was a street called, indiscriminately, Raudalsche Straße, Raudarrosche Straße and Rappelsche Straße. While you can discern the original destination in the last German name, in Estonian it stands out loud and clear: Rapla. The contemporary Estonian counterparts Raudalu and Raudaru were after a local inn called Raudaru Kõrts (from raud: iron + aru: meadow, see Raua and Aru, but why?), aka Uerist (1798, but why’er? It sorta sounds like a mispronunication... although it could also come from ‑vere, see Aedvere), or Raud Arro (1725) in German and Raudorakrog, etc. (1697) in Swedish. Confusion was a no-brainer. Name changed in 1949 to Viljandi to which it also leads, if you have the time. Last word?... Arro is and was a common-enough surname and the original name may well have been based on ‘Arro’s smithy’.







