Reigilaid (Rootsi)

Reigilaid (lit. 'Reigi Islet', also spelled Reigi laid)^[1] is a former small islet in the Baltic Sea split between the settlements of Rootsi^[1] and Pihla, Estonia.

Geography

Reigilaid lies at the southeast end of Reigi Bay (Estonian: Reigi laht), about 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) northeast of the beach at Kõrgessaare. It is now a peninsula of the island of Hiiumaa. Reigilaid has an area of about 0.95 square kilometers (0.37 sq mi). It lies 4 meters (13 ft) above sea level.

Name

The name Reigilaid is a compound, in which the second element, -laid, means 'islet'. Among various theories, the most common is that the first part, Reigi-, derives from a form like *hraukia, *röiki, or *räike, meaning 'stony land, stony region', thus 'stony/rocky island'. The onomastician Aino Naert (1921–2008) pointed out that in the Hiiumaa Swedish dialect öy became i, and that the final -i in Reigi- may be a development of Swedish ö 'island' (from Old Norse ey).^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b Kallasmaa, Marja; Ross, Eevi (2010). Hiiumaa kohanimed (PDF). Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus. p. 208. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
^ "Reigi". Dictionary of Estonian Place Names. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Instituut. Retrieved September 27, 2025.