Scotland is from the Latin Scoti, the term applied to Gaels, people from what is now Scotland and Ireland, both pirates and the Dal Riada who had come from Ireland to reside in the Northwest of what is now Scotland, in contrast, for example, to the Picts. Accordingly, the Late Latin word Scotia (land of the Gaels) was initially used to refer to Ireland. [size=14pt]However, by the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to (Gaelic-speaking) Scotland north of the river Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, both derived from the Gaelic Alba. [/size]The use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages.
