Name of Romania

The name of Romania (România) comes from the Romanian Român, which is a derivative of the Latin adjective Romanus (Roman). Romanians are a people living in Eastern Europe speaking a Romance language.

During the transition from Vulgar Latin to Romanian, there were some phonetical changes that modified romanus into român or rumân. The accusative form romanum was retained.

A reference to the name ''Romanian'' could be contained in the Nibelungenlied (written between 1180 and 1210), where a "Duke Ramunc of Walachia,/with seven hundred vassals, galloped up before her/like flying wild birds men saw them ride". It is argued that "Ramunc" could describe a symbolic figure, representing Romanians. In a document issued about the same period (1190 ?) by King Béla III of Hungary, a count Narad was mentioned as having fought the fury of the "Bulgarorum et Rume⟨n⟩orum" . Hungarian historian Imre Nagy believed Rumeorum to be a mistranscription of Rumenorum, which would be in reference to Romanians in the then recent uprising of the Bulgarians and Vlachs. However, the idea that Rumeorum refers to Romanians is disputed; Hungarian historian Imre Szentpétery, who co-edited the charter with Nagy, believed Rumeorum to be a mistranscription of Ruthenorum "Ruthenes", while Romanian historian Alexandru Madgearu believes this passage to be referring to harassment by the Byzantines (Romei) to a Hungarian army in the Theme of Bulgaria en route to the Holy Land in the Third Crusade.

In the Renaissance Romanians begin to be mentioned in journey and political reports, providing information about the name they give themselves, about their language, customs and the countries they inhabit. The self-designation of Romanians as Romans is mentioned in some 30 scholarly works as early as the 16th century by mainly Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia and Walachia. Thus, Tranquillo Andronico writes in 1534 that Romanians (Valachi) "now call themselves Romans". In 1532, Francesco della Valle accompanying Governor Aloisio Gritti to Transylvania, Walachia and Moldavia notes that Romanians preserved the name of the Romans (Romani) and "they call themselves in their language Romanians (Romei)". He even cites the sentence "Sti Rominest ?" ("do you speak Romanian ?" for originally Romanian "știi românește ?") Further, this author reports what he could learn from local orthodox monks, that "in the present they call themselves Romanians (Romei)" . Reporting his mission in Transylvania, the Neapolitan Jesuit Ferrante Capeci writes around 1575 that the inhabitants of those Provinces call themselves "Romanians" ("romanesci"), while Pierre Lescalopier, relating his voyage from Venice to Constantinople, notes in 1574 that those inhabiting Walachia, Moldavia and the most part of Transylvania say to be descendants of the Romans, calling their language "romanechte" (French transcription for Romanian românește - Romanian). The Italian Dalmatian historian Johannes Lucius writes in 1666: "But the to-day Walachians, whatever Walachian language they speak, don't call themselves Wlachians or Walachians but Romanians and they boast their origin from the Romans and acknowledge to speak the Roman language".

Other first-hand evidence about the name Romanians used to call themselves comes from authors having lived in Transylvania and/or Romanian principalities: the learned Lutheran preacher and first Transylvanian Saxon historiograph Johann Lebel attests in 1542 that common Romanians call themselves "Romuini", the Polish Humanist Stanislaus Orichovius notes as late as 1554 that "these left behind Dacians in their own language are called Romini, after the Romans, and Walachi in Polish, after the Italians". Another humanist, who took up residence in Transylvania as a bishop of Alba Iulia, the Dalmatian Antonius Verantio, who later would become cardinal and viceroy of Habsburg Hungary, also states in 1570 that "the Wallachians call themselves Romans" and provides an example: "When they ask somebody whether they can speak Wallachian, they say: do you speak Roman? and [when they ask] whether one is Wallachian they say: are you Roman?" while the Jesuit Theology professor Martinus Szent-Ivany cites in 1699 Romanian expressions: "Sie noi sentem Rumeni" (modern standard Romanian "Și noi suntem români") and "Noi sentem di sange Rumena" (in modern standard Romanian "Noi suntem de sânge român") The geographer Anton Friedrich Büsching writes in 1754 that "the Wallachians, who are remnant and progeny of the old Roman colonies thus call themselves Romanians, which means Romans" The Hungarian writer András Dugonics in 1801 states: "But those Romans who remained in Dacia mixed their Roman language with the language of the Sarmatians [of the Slavs] and that of the Dacians. Thus a special language was formed, the Wallachian language (oláh nyelv), which is nothing else but a mixture of the Latin language with the Slavic and Dacian language (dákus), and they themselves are today called the Romans (rómaiak), ie rumun" the English author John Paget, in 1839, in his book, "Hungary and Transylvania" writes: ""the Wallack of the present day calls himself "Rumunyi" and retains a traditional pride of ancestry, in spite of his present degradation."

Historical Romanian documents display two variants of "Romanian": "român" and "rumân". For centuries, both spelling forms are interchangeably used, sometimes in the same phrase. Historically, the variant rumân was preferred in Wallachia and Transylvania, with român only common in Moldavia. This distinction was preserved in local dialects even by the mid-20th century: rumân was the preferred form in Transylvania and Oltenia, while român was used in northern and eastern parts of Western Moldavia. Both variant were attested in contact zones such as Bukovina and southern Moldavia, as well as in most of Muntenia; the later occurrence may either be an old phenomenon insufficiently attested in older documents, or it may be a more recent innovation due to the cultural influence of standard Romanian.

In the 17th century, the term "Romanian" also appears as Rumun (Johann Tröster), Rumuny (Paul Kovács de Lisznyai), Rumuin (Laurentius Toppeltinus), and Rumen (Johannes Lucius and Martin Szentiványi).

In the Middle Ages the ethno-linguistical designation rumân/român also denoted common people. During the 17th century, as serfdom becomes a widespread institution, common people increasingly turns into bondsman. In a process of semantic differentiation in 17th-18th centuries the form rumân, presumably usual among lower classes, got merely the meaning of bondsman, while the form "român" kept an ethno-linguistic meaning. After the abolition of the serfage by Prince Constantine Mavrocordato in 1746, the form "rumân" gradually disappears and the spelling definitively stabilises to the form "român", "românesc".