Home
Trahteri (Trahter)
Lit. Tavern, inn, public house. Saagpakk suspects it comes from the Russian or German. EES suggests Esto-Swedish trafter, guesthouse which – given Sweden’s importing of French vocabulary following Napoleon’s installation of Bernadotte as son and heir to childless King Charles XIV John – probably comes from French traiteur, originally a person providing food for money, purveyor of food, thence restauranteur, now more or less a delicatessen and/or caterer, cf. Italian trattoria. Hence 3 main possibilities: 1) A farm or poolmõis (see Mõisa) just named Trahter (there was an Adami Trahteri tee / Aadamatrahteri koht [stead, seat] a few km east, possibly related); 2) A farm or poolmõis acting as inn. Since there were 2 streets/locations of the same name within 20 m of each other, this one, ‘new’ i.e. Uuetrahtri, also listed as ‘(Ges.)’ or Gesinde (dependency, see Õismäe); and ‘old’, Vanatrahtli, also listed as Kordon, or border post, presumably one set up between Tallinn and Harku under the first Soviet occupation of 1940-1941; and 3) a combination of both, probably the more likely solution.
Torupilli (Torupill) 
Bagpipes. Apparently named after the <18th-C tavern called Torupilli Körts, itself after a former pasture with its alternative name of Sikupilli, far nicer than Städtischer Schlachthof, municipal slaughterhouse. Better known nowadays for its shopping-mall. Only street in Tallinn that’s an ots. Sub-district named in 1900-20s; street in 1991.
Tornimäe (Tornimägi)
Although it means Tower Hill, there’s neither one nor tother in sight. Apparently named after a certain Adam Tornimäe (or Adam X from Tornimäe in Saaremaa), a worker who rented a property from Jaani Seek, St John’s Almshouse, in the early 17th C, long enough for it to become known as Tornimäe Maja (house). In the 19th C, Tornimäe was also the place to go for autopsies. See Mäe for discussion.
