Sigala is a village in

Hiiumaa Parish Hiiumaa Parish ( Estonian: ''Hiiumaa vald'') is a rural municipality of Estonia on the island of Hiiumaa. Hiiumaa Parish was established by merging Emmaste Parish, Hiiu Parish, Käina Parish and Pühalepa Parish after the municipal elections h ...

Hiiu County Hiiu County ( or ''Hiiumaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia, being the smallest county both in terms of area and population. It consists of Hiiumaa (German language, German and ), the second largest island of Estonia, and several smaller isl ...

in northwestern

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Name

Sigala was attested in written sources in 1565 in the personal name ''Siekla Matz'', and in 1576 in the personal name ''Matz Martson i Sickaleth''. The name was attested as ''Siggalaid '' in 1728 and ''Siggala'' in 1798. The common noun ''sigala'' means '

pig farm Pig farming, pork farming, pig production or hog farming is the raising and breeding of domestic pigs as livestock, and is a branch of animal husbandry. Pigs are farmed principally for food (e.g. pork: bacon, ham, gammon) and skins. Pigs a ...

' in

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

, but this may be a coincidence.

Paul Ariste Paul Ariste (3 February 1905 – 2 February 1990) was an Estonian linguist renowned for his studies of the Finno-Ugric languages (especially Estonian and Votic), Yiddish and Baltic Romani language. He was born as Paul Berg, in Rääbise, V ...

, , and Edvin Lagman derived the name of the village from ''siga'' 'pig'. However, Leo Tiik and Marek Meristo derived the name from ''siig'' ' whitefish'. Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Rußwurm, drawing on folklore, considered it possible that the village name originates from a personal name. Marja Kallasmaa has also assumed that the name comes from a short form of the male name ''Siegfried'', which could be ''Siggo'' in Old High German, ''Siggi'' in Norwegian, and ''Sika'', ''Sike'', ''Sycka'', or ''Zyke'' in Frisian. The suffix of the name was probably shortened from the word ''laid'' 'islet, holm'.

References

Villages in Hiiu County {{Hiiu-geo-stub