The administration of Estonian place names can be divided into three categories: national, scientific and international.
The Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture organises the national administration of place names in co-operation with research institutions, the Place Names Board, and the Land Board.
The national administration of place names is regulated by legislation that establishes the assignment of rules, use, and supervision of place names.
The objectives of the national administration of place names are the consistent use of Estonian place names and the protection of place names that have historical and cultural value.
The Institute of the Estonian Language manages the scientific administration of place names. This onomastic trust institution provides expert assessments of place names and organises commissioned, targeted research.
The Võru Institute is responsible for researching the names in the Võro language.
The international administration of place names takes place through international organisations.
Estonia participates in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN). The aim of the working group is to use certain standardised place names in the interests of international coherence.
Place Names Act
The Place Names Act lays the foundations for the designation and use of Estonian place names and exercising the supervision thereof.
The basis for the stable and balanced development of place names is the Place Names Act, which came into effect on 1st of July 2004. The Act lays the foundations for the establishment, use and supervision of Estonian place names. The main objective of the Place Names Act is to ensure the consistent use of Estonian place names and the protection of place names that are culturally and historically valuable.
In other countries, the provisions of place names are usually scattered in several different pieces of legislation. The closest analogue to the Estonian law is the Norwegian Place Names Act, which regulates only the spelling of place names. Due to its comprehensiveness, the Estonian Place Names Act has been set as an example for other countries by the UN at their place name management conferences.
Full text of the Act
Place Name Day
Place Name Day is a conference that has been held since 2003, the aim of which is to inform and garner interest in place names and bring together people who consider place names important for preserving culture and history.
The Place Name Day is aimed primarily at those interested in local and general history and officials who deal with place name administration.
The event takes place once a year in a different Estonian county and usually focuses on the place names of that county.
Place Names Board of Estonia
The Place Names Board is a consultative body working at the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture under the supervision of the Minister of Regional Affairs.
Place Names Register
The purpose of the Place Names Register is to collect information on Estonian place names, process and store this information, make it available to users, and organise the use of place names. The chief commissioner of the place name register is the Land Board.
The register contains names that are officially established, those that are unofficial, and former place names. Place names in the register are the basis for other national databases and registers that use place names.
In November 2020, the Place Names Register contained 220,854 name objects with 216,467 place names. There are fewer place names than name objects because many objects form groups and have a common place name (for example, bus stops on both sides of the road have the same name).
Settlement Division
Settlement division is the division of the territory of a rural municipality or city into settlement units.
Settlement units are divided as follows.
- A village is a sparsely populated settlement or, as a rule, a densely populated settlement with less than 300 permanent residents.
- A small town is generally a densely populated settlement with at least 300 permanent residents.
- A town and a city as a settlement unit is generally a densely populated settlement with at least 1,000 permanent residents.
In Estonia, there are 47 cities, 12 towns, 188 small towns and 4455 villages.
City as an administrative unit and as a settlement unit
There is a difference between a city as an administrative unit (municipality/city) and a city as a settlement unit (city, town, small town, village). The word city is ambiguous in this case. There are 15 cities in Estonia as administrative units (municipalities) and 47 cities as settlement units. All cities as settlement units were preserved after the reform (Tapa, Tallinn, Kuressaare, Paide, etc.).
Ten cities are both settlement units and administrative units (city of Keila, city of Loksa, city of Maardu, Tallinn, city of Kohtla-Järve, city of Narva, city of Sillamäe, city of Rakvere, city of Viljandi, and city of Võru). 37 cities as settlement units are located in the territory of the city or a rural municipality as well as in an administrative unit (e.g., city of Jõhvi in Jõhvi municipality, city of Tapa in Tapa municipality, city of Valga in Valga municipality, city of Pärnu as a settlement unit in the city of Pärnu as well as an administrative unit, city of Paide as a settlement unit in the city of Paide as well as an administrative unit, etc.)
Last updated: 01.08.2023
