Alba
This article is about a name for Scotland. For other uses please see Alba (disambiguation).Alba is the ancient and modern
Scottish Gaelic name () for the
country of
Scotland (also
Alba in
Irish, and in Old Gaelic
Albu).
The word ultimately comes from a
Celtic word referring to the whole island of
Great Britain, hence the early classical name
Albion. It was used by the
Gaels to refer to the island as a whole until roughly the
ninth or
tenth centuries, when it came to be the name given to the kingdoms of the
Picts and the
Scots (
Pictavia and
Dál Riata), north of the
River Forth and the
Clyde estuary, unified by
Kenneth Mac Alpin.
As time passed that kingdom incorporated others to the south. It became
Latinized in the High Medieval period as "Albania" (it is unclear whether it may ultimately share the same
etymon as the modern
Albania or the ancient
Albania in the Caucasus). This latter word was employed mainly by Celto-Latin writers, and most famously by
Geoffrey of Monmouth. It was this word which passed into Middle English as
Albany, although very rarely was this used for the
Kingdom of Scotland, but rather for the notional
Duchy of Albany. From the latter the capital of the
U.S. state of
New York,
Albany, takes its name.
*
Albion*
Caledonia*
Scotia
