An interesting story surrounds the name of Tsarskoe Selo. When the Swedish lords gained control of this land from the Russians in the seventeenth century, the Russian Saritza made a natural transition to Saritzhof, meaning that this estate had a manor house. The Finnish population called it Saarismuis, since the ‘tz r’ sound is unknown in the Finnish language and the’a’ is usually lengthened to ‘aa’. Muis meant farm, so in the Russian language the name became Sarskaya farm. During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna the name was modified to Sarkoe Selo because the former estate now had a small village with a church that had been built in the time of Catherine I. Gradually the ‘Selo’ or ‘village’ part of the name took the place of the word ‘farm’. The name Tsarskoe Selo gained popularity during the reign of Catherine II, when everyone called it by this name except on official documents. Much later, in 1937, the name was changed to Pushkin, in honor of the favorite Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin.