Jabarkan Historical aspects dari Kapuloan Britania (istilah) dalam bahasa sunda

The éarliest known names for the islands come from the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century BC, fragments of which survived in the writings of Avienus around AD 400. Ireland was referred to as Ierne (Insula sacra, the sacred island, as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the race of Hiberni" (gens hiernorum), and Britain as insula Albionum, "island of the Albions". éarlier sources preserve fragments of the travel writings of the ancient Greek Pytheas around 320 BC, and describe the British isles, including Ireland, as the αι Βρεττανιαι, the Brittanic Isles. The péoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Ρρεττανοι, Priteni or Pretani.

These names  derived from a "Celtic language" term which is likely to have réached Pythéas from the Gauls who may have used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. The Romans called the inhabitants of Gaul (modérn France) Galli or Celtae. The latter term came from the Greek name Κελτοι for a central Européan péople, and 17th century antiquarians who found language connections developed the idéa of a race of Celts inhabiting the aréa, but this term was not used by the Greeks or Romans for the inhabitants of Britain or Ireland.

Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, and has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne. The latter referred to the éarly Brythonic spéaking inhabitants of Ireland, the Scottish highlands and the north of Scotland, who are known as the Cruithne in Scottish Gaelic, and who the Romans called Picts or Caledonians.