Nunne (Nunn)

Nun. Today’s genitive is Nunna, so this could be an earlier spelling. Named after a one-time nearby nunnery, the Cistercian convent of St. Michael, Püha Miikaeli klooster (see Nunnadetagune torn). Recorded in the Middle Ages as susterstrate (1361) or platea sancti monialium (1364), and later as platea sororum (1480) and Süsterstrasse (1606), the Soviets, perhaps due to its ending up in front of another place of mass congregation, Balti Jaam, christened this and Väike-Kloostri with the slightly more pedestrian denomination of Vaksali (1950-1987).

Nunnatorn (0)

Nun’s Tower. Name first recorded 1738 but, built 1311-20, also known at one stage as de nie torn. Nie has an intriguing history. In MLG, it basically meant ‘new’, so New Tower? It was once, so why not? It is also what linguists call a ‘babbling’ or ‘nursery’ word for a variety of care-givers: Welsh nain (grandmother), Persian nana (mother), Greek νάννα (nanna, female cousin or aunt), Russian няня (njanja, nanny, nurse or babysitter), and even Sorbian nan (father). But this also gave Latin nunnus and nunna (monk and nun). So although there is the obvious probability of it originally meaning ‘nun’, it might also have been a fortuitous coincidence. See also Paks Margareeta.

• All-linn
• City Wall

Nulu (Nulg)

Aka Siberi nulg, Siberian fir, Abies sibirica. The word nulg is a loan word calqued on nulγo, from the Cheremis, aka Mari, language by Aaviku in the early 20^th C, although what they called it before remains obscure. Maybe they just didn’t.