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Vaimu (Vaim)
Spirit, ghost, apparition (also means: mind or mental power, or female farm labourer on corvée duty, the one-time compulsory service on a manor). At first glance, a shortening of ‘holy ghost’, this is not certain; MLG tended to use hillige gēst, etc., for that (see Pühavaimu). Since the earliest records (1694 onwards) give German Spockstraße, it may well be a vestige of Reformation jabs at the Catholic rite (where lengthening the ‘o’ in spȫk was intended to make it sound more foolish?), warping into Spuk-/Spuck- straße/gasse (ghost or revenant street, 1717 on). In 1872, ‘translating’ the German into Russian caused buckets of grief all round: the governor didn’t accept the grotesque Russo-German travesty of Шпуковская (Shpukovskaya), the German already reminiscent more of spitting (spucken) than spookin’ (spuken), and the townspeople, pitchforks in hand, rejected his counter-proposal of Нечистая (Nechistaya, unholy or dirty), so it ended up as Страшная (Strashnaya, Scary or Terrible, in the sense of that which engenders terror) street (1907). The Soviets, anti-superstitious and prosaic to the last, renamed it Vana, Old (1950-1987), see Marta.
Vana-Posti (Vana-Post)
Old Post, or mail. Known first as quappen strathe or platea / vicus quappenstrate (1367-73), lutso ulits (1732), or Quappenstraße (1737) after the burbots (Lat. Lota lota, Ger. Quappe, Est. luts:lutsu) in the pond in the moat ‘upstream’ of nearby Karjaveski (Karja värav watermill) and, given the distance, perhaps the ditches or water channels running along the road from there. In 1780. Tallinn set up a post office on the corner of Harju, resulting in its next name of Poststraße which, when the PO moved to the corner of Vene and Pühavaimu in 1829, added Alte Poststraße to its name with all-round confusion until the present was settled upon.
Vanaturu kael (0)
Neck of the old market. Only thoroughfare in Tallinn designated by kael. As to whether this was an original designation, I am sceptical, despite a similar use elsewhere (Lemmiku kael on Aegna, see Tulekivi). Other examples such as Võrkla from Wærkæla; Nahkjala > Nakæl; Sinikahja > Sinikaela; etc., suggest a possible genitive suffixed by a ‑la ending (see Hiiela and Ruunaoja). Known as Markthalsgasse, Marktstraße, Marktgasse, etc., in the 19th C, the first of which suggests it as a covered part of a market (could the hal turn into kael?).
Voorimehe (Voorimees)
Cabman, coachman, carrier (voor = cart, wagon, etc.). Apparently where cabmen of the past used to wait. Very odd this one, despite being one of Tallinn’s oldest streets (see map XXX 1310 Reval), no recorded names earlier than 1813: Kleine Rittergasse or lesser (lower) Knight’s lane.