Why was France called France?

French belongs to the family of romance languages, that is, originated on the basis of the Latin language, which was spoken in Ancient Rome. The name “Francia” in Latin means literally “land of the Franks”.

Until the V century BC, Gauls lived in the territory of modern France, and the country was called Gaul. Subsequently, the country was captured by the Romans, but the former name remained.

And in the First century BC, Germanic tribes began to invade Gaul from the North: the Burgundians, Visigoths, and Franks. It was the Franks who delivered the country from Roman rule, while at the same time adopting the language and culture of the Romans. They began to call their country the “Kingdom of the Franks” (“Regnum Francorum”) in Latin.

And the country became officially known as France more than a thousand years later, since 1190.

As for the name of the Franks themselves, historians and philologists did not agree on the name of this people. There are versions that it comes from the words “wandering”, “wandering”, as well as “proud”, “noble”, “brave”, and even “wild”, “ferocious”.