Names
Vaalu (Vaal)
Swathe, bank and windrow. Varied: multiple conflicting definitions and translations found. A common interpretation is ‘windrow’ (see Loo), but this concerns hay and doesn’t tally with its use in reference to cabbages, or trees, or sand or snow, where ‘bank’ is more appropriate. The common feature seems to be largely organic (farm or swidden) materials pushed to one side in a row either manually or by the wind. Other dialect and long-past acceptions include: a notch made in a tree by an axe, a single-roller mangle for drying or smoothing clothes, or the wing of a seine net. Given its neighbors, a swathe or a windrow. Mini hay-and-harvest group. See Kahlu.
Vääna (Vääna):
Various explanations for this… It may be named after a ‘nearby’ village or manor, the latter thought to have originally been a fortress, and later (1306/1325?) a poolmõis (see Mõisa) belonging to Padise monastery. Known historically as Faehna or Feyena, Veghenoya (all 14th-C) where the name (with an Oja tacked on) could, conceivably, have derived from MLG vēen, vēyen, etc., to hate or treat with hostility, evolving into Ger. feien, to render invulnerable (cognates Ger. Feind, enemy and Eng. fiend), a reasonable name for a fortress…), but this seems a bit over the top. More likely: simply from the nearby winding river Vääna (cf. väänama, to twist)! On the other hand, it looks suspiciously like the backstories in Väo and Lükati, but there’s no convincing evidence. What is odd is why (if they did) did they choose the name of a manor house some 16-odd km futher west? Anyone’s guess. Formerly Raadio (see Tähetorni) (until 1927), then Pioneeri (see Pioneeride) (1927-59), and Lao (see Moonalao) (1959-60).
Vaari (Vaar)
Grandfather, old man. The expression Vaar ja moor (see Moora) suggests it comes from Swedish where far and mor mean father and mother. Street, interestingly, named for being on the wrong side of the track to Hallivanamehe. See Äia.
Vabaduse puiestee (Vabadus)
Avenue in Nõmme renamed only once, briefly, to 21. Juuni from 1940-1941. Before being a road, however, records* (1926) list it as Vana kindluse raudtee, old defensive railway, after the remains of the confusingly-named Peter the Great’s Naval Fortress, aka Tallinn-Porkkala defense station, a line of fortification scheduled to include (on the Estonian side) hundreds of kilometers of railway with – in addition to the cannon mounted on flatbed wagons – guns on Naissaar, Aegna, Viimsi, Suurupi and Kakumäe designed to protect Saint Petersburg from attack by sea. See Peetri and Noblessneri. Part of the E67 from Helsinki to Prague.
* Although the railway may have been 100 m or so further south...
