Aru, Harju County

Aru is a village in Kuusalu Parish, Harju County in northern Estonia.

Name

Aru was attested in written sources as Arroperre in 1690, Arro in 1844, and Арокюля in 1866. The village is named after its oldest farm, called Arupere: the second part, pere, means 'family, household', and aru means 'dry meadow/grassland; higher, drier land'. The reference work Baltisches historisches Ortslexicon cites Arweculle and Arrenküll as the earliest attestations of the name, but these are not certain.