LIIVIMAA KROONIKA YKESCOLA ~ YKESCOLE JA ÜKSKÜLA. TÕNU KARMA 80. SÜNNIPÄEVAKS
Ykescola ~ Ykescole attested in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia and Üksküla (Uexküll)

Summary/Abstract: The widespread assumption that the Estonian name Üksküla, Latvian Ikšķile (from Livonian ikš ‘one’ and kilā ‘village’), German Uexküll means ‘one village’ is based on folk etymology, where the German place and family name Uexküll is analysed as a compound uex+küll. The first part uex is identified with the Estonian üks ‘one’ and the second component küll with the Estonian küla ‘village’. Such etymology is based on a folk etymological reanalysis of the original Livonian (not Estonian, but also Finno-Ugric) place name Ykescola ~ Ykescole attested in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia at the end of the 12th century (first mentioned in 1184). The most credible reading of the place name Ykescola ~ Ykescole is, however, „the ford or islet(s), i.e. a place (on the Western Dvina) where it was possible to cross the river, belonging to the son of the nobleman Ike (or to the nobleman Ikei(n)”. The personal name Ike has the honourable meaning ‘age, lifetime’. The noble Ike family had a great power in Livonia. They controlled the military and trade traffic across the Western Dvina at Ykescola ~ Ykescole. Later, the toponym became the German place name as well as the feudal family name Uexküll. Estonians, Latvians and Baltic Germans each gave this name their own vernacular reinterpretation, respectively, Üksküla, Ikšķile, or Uexküll ‘one village’. That folk etymology belongs to the Uexkülls’ (20th century) family lore and the Estonian folklore.

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