Surreal illustration by Estonian artist Jaan Tammsaar
Estonia is one of those countries that, when I was growing up, wasn’t paid much attention to and wasn’t in the news a lot. Until 1991 it was part of the Soviet Block, but what it was like, I couldn’t tell you. In this sense it was similar to a backwater country on a fantasy map, one that has no geographic detail, and which is mentioned in the text only slightly. Like, say, Far Harad in The Lord of the Rings. What’s in Far Harad? Who rules it? What are its geographic features, its cities, its animal life? Tolkien never told us, in the trilogy at least.
Estonia (now The Republic of Estonian) had the ill fortune to be ruled by foreign powers for much of its existence, only emerging as its own nation in the 1990s. It’s a country with both Finnish and Baltic heritage and this Finnish side is reflected in its language and the randomgenned names below, which aren’t real yet incorporate the same phonemes. Among other interesting tidbits, it was the last European nation to be predominantly pagan and was Christianized only in the 12th century! If this isn’t badass enough, in 1989 two million people formed a human chain spanning Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to demonstrates these countries’ unity in seeking independence from the then-USSR.
Estonian Names
| Female
Ameise Eskella Geelise Haäla Hepi Ineje Meppi Neevi Nomi Oluika Osuta Rooni Ruika Rullissa Soosa Taanje Töpi Tügke Uka |
Male
Ekas Enaake Güdjic Jaake Joise Joomas Jövi Kükju Kudsi Lovjo Mihkvar Okvar Piirmas Raägi Rivent Saament Semas Ulas Vöglis |
Below, an interesting map showing the Estonian names for the rest of Europe.
