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.
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, Estonianised 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.
Müürivahe (Müürivahe)
Between the (city) walls. Müüri, however, is singular, so maybe ‘space behind the city wall’ (i.e. the arcades) would be a better rendering, although given its earlier German name of Zwischen den Mauern (between the walls) it might have been shortened from Müüridevahe, implying between the city wall and the row of houses opposite (or another one-time parallel wall?). Also Soviet occupation renaming (1950-1987) of Munga. At one stage is was also known as Tynnepattenstrate, perhaps after Michel Tynnepatten whose house (in this street?) was, for some reason, acquired by the city, ca. 1541. There are rumours of a one-time brothel called Punane Klooster (red cloister) there, but whether named as a “Get thee to a nunnery” type allusion where ‘nunnery’ was Elizabethan English for brothel, or because rented out by a convent (see Rataskaevu), is not clear.
Niguliste (?)
Street and church. Nicholas, presumed dead around 350 CE, relics nicked by Italian merchants in 1087, patron saint of sailors, children, unwed girls, apothecaries, merchants, pawnbrokers and perfumers, and patron saint of Russia. Saint’s day: Dec. 6, evolution into Santa Claus began during Middle Ages. For a variation on the theme, see Vene. First recorded as platea beati Nicolai in 1377, then going through some unusual contortions in the 18th & 19th Cs: Nikkola ulits (like the next one, but more Finnish sounding, 1723), niggola ulits (old school Estonian spelling with Russian ‘street’ appended, 1732), Nigulaste uulits (where the ‑laste makes it sound like ‘Nigulians’, while ‑(i)ste may be from old Norse, 1861), and Nigolas uulits (1885). For some reason, probably related to the Kelchi pärn (see Nõelasilm and Pärnade), called Липовая (Lipovaya) or Липовая Городская (Lipovaya Gorodskaya, Linden or Linden City Road) in the early 20th C.