Names
Gaasi (Gaas)
Gas. The word ‘gas’ is believed to have been created by Dutch scientist Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579-1644) as his mother-tongue pronunciation (/χɑs/ or /ɣɑs/) of Anc. Greek χάος – chaos, thus named, apparently, because of his surprise that gas was so disorganized: “halitum illum, Gas vocavi, non longe à Chao”: (I called that vapor Gas, not far removed from Chaos). Anagram of Saagi. Part of a loose construction-materials group. See Paneeli.
Gagarini J.
(Juri Gagarin, 1934-1968)
First man in space (1961-04-12). A contributing factor to his cosmonauticality was a spaceship-friendly height of 5 ft 2, or 1.57 meters. Said to have withstood about 8-10 g on re-entry. Soviet occupation renaming (1961-1989) of Toompuiestee.
Gildi (Gild)
Guild. Renamed (1950-1990) as Kolhoosi during the Soviet occupation. Petty but consistent.
Glehni N.v.
(Nikolai von Glehn, Count, 1841-1923)
Founder of the then town, now Tallinn suburb, of Nõmme. Died in Brazil. One of the last scions of a family descended from the German merchant Heinrich von Glehn who arrived in Estonia in the mid-17th C. Street has a fairly motley history of name change, with (ignoring the minor Ger & Rus. versions) Glehni (1927-39), followed by Niine (1939-59), interluding as Marana (Potentilla spp.) in 1940-41, then Niineõie (bast tree blossom, 1959-60), and Välgu (1960-89) during the Soviet occupation. The Glehni streetname was reinstated (and time-shared?) in 1939, upped to Nikolai v. Glehni tn in 1989 and restored to all its aristocratic pre-1939 fullness of Nikolai von Glehni tänav in 2010.
Gogoli N.
(Nikolai Gogol, 1809-1852)
One of Russia’s Ukraine’s most brilliant writers. Author of Dead Souls, Diary of a Madman, The Greatcoat, The Nose, The Government Inspector and, regrettably, Taras Bulba. Interestingly, while Samuel Beckett wrote in French (sorta, don’t @ me), Joseph Conrad in English, and even Descartes who scribbled in Latin, are all respectively identified as Irish, Polish and French, Gogol is still commonly called a ‘Russian’ writer. Soviet occupation renaming (1952-1989) of Raua.
Gonsiori
(Jakob Johann Gonsior, 1794-1865)
19th‑C Tallinn alderman and lawyer, mayor and/or senator of Tallinn from 1828-1865, orphanage founder and funder. Renamed (1950-1991) as Lomonossovi M. during the Soviet occupation. Formerly (1920) split into Greater- and Lesser-Gonsiori. He lived at Mündi 2 (another one-time candidate for being called Gonsiori), It has been suggested that the name comes from Polish gąsior, for gander (the letter ą is nasalized and pronounced ‘an’). For information, Poland controlled Southern Estonia from 1559 to 1629.
