Kura (Kura)
Most uncertain: the obvious association is Kuramaa, Courland, the county, region, former Duchy of Kurzeme in present-day Latvia, or the Irbe or Irben Strait (Estonian: Kura kurk, Latvian: Irbes jūras šaurums), possibly a bay on the Juminda peninsula about 50 km ENE of Tallinn. It is also the name of a lake between Kärdla and the airstrip on the N coast of Hiiumaa; and of the Lithuanian bay known locally as Left. Not co-incidentally, along with kuura and kora, it is old dialect in the SW half of Estonia for ‘left’, too. In other places, for example, Kihnu, a kuralane may also designate a ‘Courlander’ or, more reasonably, an inhabitant of the Kura village in Pärnumaa (it’s only half an hour away by raven), although that doesn’t explain its earlier use in S Hiiumaa and S Saaremaa. Another possibility is that it could simply be a misspelling or simplified pronunciation of a one-time estate in the area known on maps from 1808 and 1865, etc., as Gut Cournal or Kurnal... It is after all only 800 m from the Kurna brook running through the neighboring municipality of Rae. Lastly, of interest only to a very bizarre minority of people who need to get out more, it’s also a river in Georgia (Mt’k’vari, in Georgian მტკვარი, suggested as derived from Megrelian tkvar-ua, to gnaw or gouge, as rivers are thought to do as a geological form of bed-wetting, but in my mind more likely from an older Georgian root meaning, more simply, good water), often considered to be a demarcation between Europe and Asia, and whose Turkish name Kura is derived from Kurosh, the Persian pronunciation of Cyrus the Great. To conclude, given its relative frequency in Estonia as farm or locality name (oikonym), its historical use as personal name, e.g. Kurь, from Tohtkiri No.690 (see Tohu), ca. ≤14th C, in Finland and Karelia, it may simply reflect a common tendency to point out the different, i.e. left-handedness, with a possible derogatory or condescending cognate in the sense of beggar (dialect Finnish kurri, Estonian kerjus, both probably derived from *kura, left or left-handed (see also Kuradi torn, etymologically related for being on the left side of God). At the end of the day, however, it may simply refer to a farm ‘on the left’ (to somewhere). Or not. There is a farm called Kuura, two ‘u’s, somewhat further south. Only street set with two anagrams: Karu and Raku. Given the simultaneous collective dating of this street, Kume and Kõnnu, I call this group the sinister (from Latin: left) street trio. Formerly known (until 1970) as Muraka.