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Väina (Väin)
Strait (as in Dover), sound, pass. Kalevala hero Väinämöinen’s name is sometimes accused of having originated, in part, from this: the modern-day term for old Finnish väinä is suvanto and one of Väinämöinen’s alternative names is Suvantolainen. Since the 700-year-gestated geriatro-fetus was born of a sea nymph, the strait could be an allegory of the female womb and genitalia (see also Salme for another pass and another Kalevine genetrix). On the other hand, given Finland and Estonia’s obsessive history of folklore research and its seeming absence from former Votic, Mordvin, Ingrian, etc. communities, we are probably working from skewed sources anyway. And whether the word either comes from Finnish väinämö for minstrel, or this and the personal forename Väinämö are simply short forms of Väinämöinen, as Väinö also is, I couldn’t say.
Vainu (Vain)
Grassplot, village green or common. First known as Olga / Ольгинская ул. (Olginskaya) until 1925 (probably unrelated to the earlier name of Pebre, 10 km away), then switched – for reasons of consonance? Olga > Anger – to Angerstraße (village green or common) / Лужаечная ул. (Luzajesnaya, lawn) in 1926, then back to Vainu in 1937. Renamed 1940-1941 as Mõrra. Vain is also a family name and I recommend Peep Vain’s The Most Important Question, from your local bookstore.
Vaksiku (Vaksik)
Looper, caterpillar (and adult) of the Geometer moths. Bit complicated this one: vaksik comes from vaks, a span. So possibly a translation from German, Spanner (word also used for shoe-trees and peeping-toms). But since the name in Latin (Geometer, lit. land-measurer), English (looper, spanworm or inchworm), French (chenille arpenteuse, lit. measurer, surveyor or geometer caterpillar), Swedish (Mätarlarv, lit. measuring-larva), Hungarian (Araszolóhernyók from a) arasz, span*; b) oló, an ‘-ing’ ending: and c) hernyók, caterpillars), Japanese (shakutorimushi [katakana: シャクトリムシ, kanji: 尺取虫], the ‘shaku taking bug’, shaku being an archaic [officially out in 1966 but said still to be used in carpentry...] Japanese measure equal to 10/33 m, or about 30.3 cm, or the average distance between two nodes of bamboo, although most inchworms are incapable of such refinement), and a mile-long list of other names all imply a similar notion. The interesting point about all this is we (I) still don’t know whether the name is due to obvious (i.e. simply observing their typical looping gait) convergent naming, or from a perhaps late-19th‑C spread of international zoological nomenclature. I could look it up, but do you really want me to? Family includes Biston betularia of English ‘pollution as evolutionary agent’ fame. Part of a lepidopteran group. See also Villkäpa.
* Hungary has two spans: one from tip of the thumb to tip of the index, the kisarasz or small span, and th’other, presumably the one we have looping around the back of our minds despite the fact the distance spanned is probably still small, but hey, from tip of thumb to tip of little finger, the nagyarasz, or large span.
