page_title: Name of Romania
section_title: Etymology of Romania (România)
hierarchical_section_title: Name of Romania / Etymology of Romania (România)
caption_attribution_description: English: Neacșu's Letter, written in 1521, is the oldest surviving document available in Romanian. A transcription is available on Wikisource, at The letter of Neacșu of Câmpulung. Română: Scrisoarea lui Neacșu, scrisă în 1521, este cel mai vechi document disponibil scris în limba română. O transcripție poate fi găsită la Wikisursă, la Scrisoarea lui Neacșu din Câmpulung Русский: Самый старый сохранившийся текст на румынском языке (1521&#160;г.).
context_page_description: The name of Romania comes from the Romanian Român, which is a derivative of the Latin adjective Romanus. Romanians are a people living in Central and South-Eastern Europe speaking a Romance language.
context_section_description: The earliest preserved document written in the Romanian language is a 1521 letter that notifies the mayor of Brașov about an imminent attack by the Turks. This document, known as Neacșu's Letter, is also notable for having the first occurrence of "Romanian" in a Romanian text, Wallachia being called here the Romanian Land—Țeara Rumânească (Țeara < Latin Terra = land). As in the case of the ethnonym "român/rumân", Romanian documents use both forms, Țara Românească and Țara Rumânească, for the country name.
  A common Romanian area called The Romanian Land and embracing Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania is mentioned by the chronicler Miron Costin in the 17th century. 
  In the first half of the 18th century the erudite prince Dimitrie Cantemir systematically used the name Țara Românească for designating all three Principalities inhabited by Romanians.
  Actually, as argued by Ioan-Aurel Pop, the name "Romania" isn't but a version of the name "Romanian Land", just as in England - Anglia, or Scotland - Scotia.
  The etymology of "România" didn't follow the Romanian pattern of word formation for country names, which usually adds the suffix "-ia" to the ethnonym by keeping its accent, like in "grec" → "Grecia", "Bulgar" → "Bulgaria", "rus → "Rusia", etc. Since it is a self-designation, the word "România" has an older history, coming from "românie" which in turn resulted as a derivation of the word "român" by adding the suffix "-ie" with an accented last syllable, like in ""moș → moșie", "domn" → "domnie" or "boier" → "boierie" (lord → lordship). Initially, "românie" may indeed have meant "Romanianship" (just like "rumânie" meant "serfdom" before disappearing), as suggested by Nicolae Iorga's theory of the "Romaniae", i.e.  self-organized communities of romanophone peasants all across medieval Europe.  
  The name "România" as common homeland of the Romanians is documented in the early 19th century.
  The name "Romania" (România) was first brought to Paris by young Romanian intellectuals in the 1840s, where it was spelled "Roumanie" in order to differentiate Romanians (fr.: Roumains) from Romans (fr.: Romains).  The French spelling version (Roumanie) spread then over many countries, such as Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany.
  In English, the name of the country was originally borrowed from French "Roumania" (<"Roumanie"), then evolved into "Rumania", but was eventually replaced after World War II by the name used officially: "Romania". With a few exceptions such as English and Hungarian ("Románia"), in most languages, the "u" form is still used (German and Swedish: Rumänien; Bulgarian: Румъния; Serbian: Румунија / Rumunija, Polish: Rumunia, etc.). In Portuguese, to distinguish them from the Romans, the Romanians are called romenos and their country Roménia. The e reflects the distinct quality of the Romanian â, even though it's not very similar.
caption: Neacșu's Letter, the oldest surviving document written in Romanian has the oldest appearance of the word "Rumanian"
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