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Planeedi (Planeet)
Planet. Celestial street-name group. See also Saturni.
Lühike jalg (Adj.)
Lit. Short leg/foot. One of the older streets of Tallinn: brevis mons (short hill, 1353), parvus mons (small hill, 1371), descensus montis ad mare (descent from the hill to the sea, undated) making you wonder what the sea level was at that time (see Paljassaare), korter berg (short hill, 1428), lühhike jalg (1732), before settling into its present name in 1908. See Pikk Jalg. The translation of jalg is worrisome: usually ‘leg’, which is one of its various acceptions, along with ‘foot’, and others I’m sure. But a ‘leg’ is usually a stage in something, a journey or a race, while ‘foot’ commonly applies to hills and mountains, as it does here. Since jalg is so obviously related to jalutama (to walk), perhaps, given the slope, it was used to emphasize the difficulty in going up by carriage or cart, and while ‘Short Foot’ may be correct-ish in its literal translation, I feel that ‘Short Rise’ better expresses its functional quality. But not its charming ‘olde-worlde’-ness. Anyhoo, given its two odd ‘legs’, Tallinn is sometimes jokingly referred to as lonkav linn (totter town or lit. limping town). See also Lühike tänav in Hiiu. Interestingly, lühike is the diminutive of lühi:lühida the nominative of which is only found in compound words, and can also be a double diminutive as lühikene.
Mündi (Peter Friedrich Mundt, 1726(?)-1800)
Tallinn businessman (silks and fabrics) from Rostock, Blackhead (see Jüriöö) and burgomeister, with property on the corner previously occupied by barber-surgeons from 1414 to 1765. First named after him in 1885 as either Mundti or Mündti, then Mundtenstraße in 1907, Estonianized to Mundi on various occasions from 1908 with a stint as Muntenstraße in 1942 following the Third Reich’s February 2nd declaration that German was the official state language in the besetzten Ostgebiete or Occupied Eastern Territories, then back to Mundi until 1954. The lack of initials in the name is odd, and it seems this is an example of Soviet rewriting of history by converting the name of a businessman to that of an object, a coin (münt:mündi, but also mint of the edible variety too). Was it also intended to be the mint itself? A mint in Estonian is müntla (place of coin), rahapaja (money + old suffix for smithy or workshop), or mündikoda (coin chamber or house), but a coin can also be a metonym for a mint and both may be interchangeable, e.g. German Münze for both. Were the 16th-C mündimeistrid masters of coin or masters of the mint? Either way, if the mint were intended, the switch was erroneous because the first(?) Tallinn mint was located not N of Raekoja square but at some unknown location W of Dunkri, Rataskaevu 6 has been suggested, moving to Niguliste 6 sometime between 1346-83. First known as brevis rega iuxta forum, Latin cum MLG for short narrow passageway off the main square (1368), or plain old brevis rega (1373-75, etc.) then Korte reghe bi dem mar(c)kte (1392), MLG for short narrow passageway near the market, and parva platea, little street (1380). It may also have been called (not noted in KNAB, info on Gov. fb page) as Habemeajaja (barber) or Kirurgi (surgeon) after the barber-surgeons living there. For rega see Pikk.
Munga (Munk)
Monk, friar. Renamed (1950-1987) as Müürivahe põik during the Soviet occupation. Earliest record dates to 1433 as monkestrate, followed by a gap until 1732 with variations around munkahoow (old Estonian spelling) and München-Hof, from MHG münech, münich or MLG mönik, etc., giving us the well-known German city of Munich, with an odd renaming as Speicherstraße in 1849 (TT, hmm...), but otherwise consistently monkish: Mönchstraße (1802), Münkenstraße (1872), etc.
