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Liivamäe (Liivamägi)
Sandy hill, mountain. Earliest record gives German Auf dem Sande and Russian На пескахъ (1881), then Estonian Liiva mäel and Liiva peal (1885), all meaning ‘on the sands’. Over time, the meaning shifted to ‘hill’/’mountain’, as in Auf dem Sandberge / Песочная гора (1890), hinting at a shift of meaning from ‘on’ or ‘on top of’ to that which this might be, irrespective of topology, perhaps also suggesting a change in naming conventions from one based on experience to one simply read about. In a sense, this matches current pronunciations of uncommon words which increasingly depend on reading rather than hearing. The earlier names were long used for various general sandy areas before used for streets. Another earlier designation was Auf dem Sande bei den drei Kreutzen (on the sand near the three crosses) and seems to refer to other crosses memorializing Blackheads who died in a clash with Russians in 1560-09-11 (see Marta). See Mäe for discussion.
Mardi (Diedrich Christian Martens, dates unknown)
Given its history of spelling change – Martena (1885), Martensgasse (1893), Martinstraße (1907), Мартенская ул. (1907), Martenstraße (1913) – the street seems to be named after a landowner with property on the corner of Liivalaia (they no longer connect). At various times in the 19th C, the northern half was named after one or more other individuals called Арефьев or Орехов (Aref'yev or Orekhov) and apparently renamed as Lennuki (1936-1991) during the Soviet occupation. Back in the day (pre-1917ish), the street was also known for its brothels. Ironically, the one at No.3 owned by Madame Jevdokia Blokhina, originally a boarding-house for girls, was later converted into a hospital and today a medical lab and AIDS Prevention Centre.
Lastekodu (Lastekodu)
Orphanage, foundling-hospital, baby farm. Named after the one on Tartu founded in 1817 to celebrate Martin Luther and the 300th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, with a bequest by Christian Mayer, senior clergyman of Oleviste and city funds. Street seems first named early 19th C (prob. long before, given the 1817 date above) as Manegenstr / Манежная ул, translated or transcribed into Est. as Maneeži (after nearby barracks), then Armenkinderstr (poor children st.) or Сиротская ул (sirotskaya: orphanage st.), followed by Lutheri Vaestelaste (Luther Orphanage st) and a bundle of date, language and spelling permutations since then. Cheapskate copy-and-paste coming up*: Lutheri-Vaestekooli (Luther’s orphanage school), shortened to Lutheri or Lutri, along with Kinderheimstraße, Luteri-Vaestekooli, Luther Waisenhausstr, Lutherstr, Lutherwaisenhausstr, Lutre-Vaestekooli, Lutri-Vaestekooli, Vaestemaja, Лютерско-Сиротская ул, Сиротская-Лютерская ул and Сиротско-Лютерская ул. The novel Vaeste-Patuste Alev (Poor Sinners’ Ville, 1927) was the prize-winning debut of August Jakobson (1904-1963), the ‘leading Stalinist in Soviet Estonian drama’ and, later, head of the Presidium of the ESSR Supreme Soviet. The poverty he describes turned him into a hard line Communist and implacable opponent of soft socialist Friedebert Tuglas (see Väikese Illimari).
* Done only once in entire dictionary, promise!
Odra (Oder)
Barley. Not in the cereal-names street zone (see Kaera) but close to a former brewery, Rewalia, belonging to the Saku Õlletehas (beer-manufacture) company, most of which left Tallinn in 1911 and returned to its home-town of Saku where beer had been brewed on the Saku estate since 1820, leaving some offices and a bottling-plant in the former St Michael’s Convent (see Nunnadetagune torn). In 1928, the then standard half-toop bottle was phased out in favor of the 0.5-liter; although what exactly a toop – a shtoff or stoup in English apparently – was is not clear. It seems to have been a metal mug used both for measuring and for drinking, representing one tenth of a pang, another unit of measurement, or bucket (and, declining pang:pange, no relation to Panga), but this would have been the Russian toop (1.23 liters). The Tallinn toop was 1.18. Measurement units in the past were highly variable. TT, on the other hand, relates it to proximity to the former Maneež barracks (not the same, but see Maneeži), which makes sense too (horses, oats…). Known first (1882) in German, Gerstenstr., then Russian (1907), Ячменная (Yachmennaya), for barley, one year before becoming Estonian.
