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Kuninga (Kuningas)
King. First recorded in 1434 as Koningstrate, with 2 main suggestions: 1. After 15th‑C local resident Lambert Koningesberch; and 2. From a then-common surname of Konink, which may also have been used as a word for ‘county elders’, generally referred to as vanem, during the late(?) middle-ages.. Translated as Королевская ул. (Korolevskaya, 'royal street') in 1882, etc. Renamed (1948-1987) as Niguliste during the Soviet occupation.
Lai (Lai)
Broad, wide. One of the oldest streets in Tallinn, with a long list of names to prove it. Initially identified after its salient residents, the nuns: susterstrate (1361), vicus monialium or platea (longa/sancti) monialium, loosely translated as “(holy) enclosed nuns’ (long) high street” (1364-1380), then platea sororum (1480). By the 1600s it was Süsterstraße or Schwestergasse and, in the 18th C (1703), the S switched to C, Cisternstraße, a spelling perhaps influenced by the 17th‑C reforms to the Cistercian movement in La Trappe, France. At some stage, however, contemporary records of Cistern- sonst genandt breitstrasse (Sisters’ - otherwise known as broad street) suggest locals must have become aware of the human side of their angelic nature and that, if nothing else, nuns were still broads...
Krookuse (Krookus)
Crocus. One of the Lilleküla flower-themed streets.
