Etymology

Variations of Kolka start appearing in documents only from around 18th century, before that the geographical feature was called Domesnes for several centuries. The term is a common Finnic lexeme meaning "corner" – Estonian kolgas, kolk, Finnish kolkka. In Estonian usage in the sense "gulf, bay" is attested. Since in Livonian this lexeme is attested only as a toponym it possible that it is a borrowing from Estonian.^[1]

A variation of the earlier name has been mentioned as Tumisnis (together with Simkala – "Semigallia, Zemgale") on the 11th century Mervallastenen rune stone – the earliest attested explicit mention of a Latvian geographical feature in any written source.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuːolkɑ/