フェニキア語
Very little remains of the Phoenician language, but numismatic inscriptions record that they knew the site as or (, ), meaning "The Wall", "The Compound", or (by metonymy) "The Stronghold". Borrowed by the Berber languages, this became the "agadir" (Tamazight: "wall"; Shilha: "fortified granary") common in North African place names. (The Israeli town Gedera shares a similar etymology, as well as the Moroccan city Agadir). The Carthaginians continued to use this name and all subsequent names have derived from it. The Greek cothon refers to a Carthaginian type of fortified basin that can be seen at ancient sites such as Motya.