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Imanta (Imanta)
Apparently an erroneous transcription of Ymaut (Latvian), or Himmot or Himotu (Livonian), the soldier who killed the newly-appointed bishop of Ikšķile (ikškilā meaning ‘one village’ [or, possibly, ‘village No.1’] in Livonian [cf. German, Üxküll or Uexküll] in present-day Latvia), Cistercian Bishop Berthold of Hanover, on his bolting horse during the Livonian Crusade in 1198. Name of Estonian choral society founded in Riga, 1880.
Jakobi (Jakob)
Aka Jaagupi. Suggested as named (in 1882) after local house-owner/landlord and ex-serviceman Mart Jakob.
Faehlmanni F.R.
(Friedrich Robert Faehlmann, 1798-1850)
Founder of the ‘Learned Estonian Society’ and originator of the Kalevipoeg idea, converting a rather malevolent giant of Estonian folklore into a king and national symbol. A medic by profession, his 1827 doctoral thesis, Observationes inflammationum occultiorum, or Observations on non-visible inflammations (the squidgy bits), he wrote in Latin. Other papers, such as the page-turning Ueber die Declination der estnischen Nomina (On the declension of Estonian nouns, a copy of which was owned by Napoleon’s linguist nephew Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, known for his almost definitive opus on Basque verbs, but I digress), a topic causing violent baldness in anyone approaching within three yards of it, he wrote in German and, as penance, became reader in Estonian language at the University of Tartu from 1842-50. Faehlman treated a wide range of patients from potatoless peasants to Baroness Bruiningk (1818-53) revolutionary sympathizer and sometime acquaintance of Karl Marx. Gossips have suggested a dalliance between Friedrich and the above Baroness Marie but there is no smoking dress. Squidgy bits and Estonian declensions have rarely been conducive to ripping off your clothes and getting down to it.
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.
