The non-native name of Croatia () derives from Medieval Latin , itself a derivation of the native ethnonym of Croats, earlier *Xъrvate and modern-day . The earliest preserved mentions of the ethnonym in stone inscriptions and written documents in the territory of Croatia are dated to the 8th-9th century, but its existence is considered to be of an earlier date due to lack of preserved historical evidence as the arrival of the Croats is historically and archaeologically dated to the 6th-7th century. The names of the Croats, Croatia and Croatian language with many derivative toponyms, anthroponyms and synonyms became widespread all over Europe.
There exist many and various linguistical and historical theories on the origin of the ethnonym. It is usually considered not to be of Slavic but rather Iranian language origin. According to the most probable Iranian theory, the Proto-Slavic *Xъrvat- < *Xurwāt- derives from Proto-Ossetian / Alanian *xurvæt- or *xurvāt-, in the meaning of "one who guards" ("guardian, protector"), which was borrowed before the 7th century. The relation to the 3rd-century Scytho-Sarmatian form Khoroáthos (alternate forms comprise Khoróatos and Khoroúathos) attested in the Tanais Tablets, near the border of present-day Ukraine and European Russia, although possible remains uncertain.
Earliest record
In 2005, it was archaeologically confirmed that the ethnonym Croatorum (half-preserved) is mentioned for the first time in a church inscription found in Bijaći near Trogir dated to the end of the 8th or early 9th century.
The oldest known preserved stone inscription with full ethnonym "Cruatorum" is the 9th-century Branimir inscription found in Šopot near Benkovac, in reference to Duke Branimir, dated between 879 and 892, during his rule. The inscription mentions:
The Latin charter of Duke Trpimir, dated to 852, has been generally considered the first attestation of the ethnonym "Chroatorum". However, the original of this document has been lost, and copy has been preserved in a 1568 transcript. Lujo Margetić proposed in 2002 that the document is in fact of legislative character, dating to 840.
In the Trpimir charter, it is mentioned:
The monument with the earliest writing in Croatian containing the native ethnonym variation xъrvatъ () is the Baška tablet from 1100, which reads: zvъnъmirъ kralъ xrъvatъskъ ("Zvonimir, king of Croats").
Etymology
The exact origin and meaning of the ethnonym Hr̀vāt (Proto-Slavic *Xъrvátъ, or *Xurwātu) is still subject to scientific disagreement. The first etymological thesis about the name of the Croats stems from Constantine Porphyrogennetos (tenth century), who connected the different names of the Croats, Βελοχρωβάτοι and Χρωβάτοι (Belokhrobatoi and Khrobatoi), with the Greek word χώρα (khṓra, "land"): "Croats in Slavic language means those who have many lands". In the 13th century, Thomas the Archdeacon considered that it was connected with the name of inhabitants of the Krk isle, which he gave as Curetes, Curibantes. In the 17th century, Juraj Ratkaj found a reflexion of the verb hrvati (se) "to wrestle" in the name. A more contemporary theory believes that it might not be of native Slavic lexical stock, but a borrowing from an Iranian language. Common theories from the 20th and 21st centuries derive it from an Iranian origin, the root word being a third-century Scytho-Sarmatian form attested in the Tanais Tablets as Χοροάθος (Khoroáthos, alternate forms comprise Khoróatos and Khoroúathos).
In the 19th century, many different derivations were proposed for the Croatian ethnonym: Josef Dobrovský believed it to be linked to the root *hrev "tree", whereas Johann Kaspar Zeuss linked it to *haru "sword"; connected it with Old-Indian šarv- "strike"; Pavel Jozef Šafárik derived it from xrъbъtъ, xribъtъ, xribъ "ridge, highlanders", whereas Franz Miklosich said it derived from hrъv (hrŭv) "dance"; Đuro Daničić considered its root to be *sar- "guard, protect"; Fyodor Braun saw the German Harfada (Harvaða fjöllum from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks), which would be the German name of the Carpathian Mountains, as the origin of an intermediate form Harvata; Rudolf Much connected it to a Proto-Germanic word hruvat- "horned", or – as Z. Gołąb later proposed common noun *xъrvъ//*xorvъ "armor" as a prehistorical loanword from Germanic *hurwa-//*harwa- "horn-armor"; derivatives *xъrvati sę//*xъrviti sę "get armored, defend oneself" – "warriors clad with horn-armor", as a self-designation or exonym; Henry Hoyle Howorth, J. B. Bury, Henri Grégoire, considered that it derives from the personal name of Kubrat, the leader of the Bulgars and founder of Old Great Bulgaria. This etymology is considered as improbable.
The 20th century gave rise to many new theories regarding the origin of the name of the Croats: derived it from the Iranian words hu- "good", ravah- "space, freedom" and suffix -at-; derived it from *kher- "cut", as seen in the Greek word kárkharos "sharp", kharah "tough, sharp", and xorbrъ "brave"; Hermann Hirt saw a connection with the name of a Germanic tribe Harudes (Χαροῦδες); , , Aleksander Brückner, Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński and Heinz Schuster-Šewc linked the root hrv- to Slovak charviti sa "to oppose, defend" or via skъrv-/xъrv- to the Lithuanian šárvas "armor" and šarvúotas "armed, cuirassier", with suffix -at emphasizing the characteristic, giving the meaning of a "well armed man, soldier"; considered valid a connection with an unspecified Thraco-Illyrian word xъrvata- "hill"; Max Vasmer first considered it as a loanword from Old-Iranian, *(fšu-)haurvatā- "shepherd, cattle guardian" (formed of Avestan pasu- "cattle" and verb haurvaiti "guard"), later also from Old-Iranian hu-urvatha- "friend" (also accepted by N. Zupanič). Niko Zupanič additionally proposed Lezgian origin from Xhurava (community) and plural suffix -th, meaning "municipalities, communities". M. Budimir saw in the name a reflexion of Indo-European *skwos "gray, grayish", which in Lithuanian gives širvas; S. K. Sakač linked it with the Avestan name Harahvaitī, which once signified the southwestern part of modern Afghanistan, the province Arachosia. "Arachosia" is the Latinized form of Ancient Greek Ἀραχωσία (Arachosíā), in Old Persian inscriptions, the region is referred to as ."The same region appears in the Avestan Vidēvdāt (1.12) under the indigenous dialect form - (whose -axva- is typical non-Avestan)." In Indo-Iranian it actually means "one that pours into ponds", which derives from the name of the Sarasvati River of Rigveda. However, although the somewhat suggestive similarity, the connection to the name of Arachosia is etymologically incorrect; G. Vernadsky considered a connection to the Chorasmí from Khwarezm, while F. Dvornik a link to the Krevatades or Krevatas located in the Caucasus mentioned in the De Ceremoniis (tenth century). V. Miller saw in the Croatian name the Iranian hvar- "sun" and va- "bed", P. Tedesco had a similar interpretation from Iranian huravant "sunny", while others from the Slavic god Khors;Овчинніков О. Східні (2000). хорвати на карті Європи (in Ukrainian) // Археологічні студії /Ін-тут археології НАНУ, Буков. центр археол. досл. при ЧДУ. – Вип. 1. – Київ; Чернівці: Прут, p. 159 suggested it might be derived from Tatar-Bashkir *chr "free" and *vata "to fight, to wage war"; Stanisław Rospond derived it from Proto-Slavic *chorb- + suffix -rъ in the meaning of "brave"; Oleg Trubachyov derived it from *xar-va(n)t (feminine, rich in women, ruled by women), which derived from the etymology of Sarmatians name, the Indo-Aryan *sar-ma(n)t "feminine", in both Indo-Iranian adjective suffix -ma(n)t/wa(n)t, and Indo-Aryan and the Indo-Iranian *sar- "woman", which in Iranian gives *har-.
Among them most taken into account were (1) the Germanic derivation from the Carpathian Mountains which is by now considered as obsolete; (2) the Slavic and Germanic derivations about "well armed man"/"warriors clad with horn-armor" indicating that they stood out from the other Slavs in terms of weapons and armour, but it is not convincing because no other Slavic tribe is named after the objects of material culture. Etymologically the first was a Lithuanian borrowing from much younger Middle High German sarwes, while the second with hypothetical *hurwa-//*harwa- argues a borrowing from Proto-Germanic dialect of the Bastarnae in the sub-Carpathian or Eastern Carpathian region which isn't preserved in any Slavic or Germanic language; (3) and the prevailing Iranian derivations, Vasmer's *(fšu-)haurvatā- ("cattle guardian") and Trubachyov's *xar-va(n)t (feminine, rich in women, ruled by women).
While linguists and historians agreed with Vasmer's or Trubachyov's derivation, according to Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński and Radoslav Katičić, the Iranian theses doesn't entirely fit with the Croatian ethnonym, as according to them, the original plural form was Hrъvate not Hъrvate, and the vowel "a" in the Iranian harvat- is short, while in the Slavic Hrъvate it is long among others. Katičić concluded that of all the etymological considerations, the Iranian is the least unlikely. Ranko Matasović also considered it of Iranian origin, but besides confirming original forms as *Xъrvátъ (sl.) and *Xъrvate (pl.), dismissed Trubachyov's derivation because was semantically and historically completely unfounded, and concluded that the only derivation which met the criteria of adaptation of Iranian language forms to Proto-Slavic, as well as historical and semantical plausibility, it is the Vasmer's assumption but with some changes, as the Proto-Slavic *Xъrvat- < *Xurwāt- comes from Proto-Ossetian / Alanian *xurvæt- or *xurvāt-, in the meaning of "one who guards" ("guardian, protector"), which was borrowed before the 7th century, and possibly was preserved as a noun in Old Polish charwat (guard).
The relation of the Croatian ethnonym to the 3rd-century personal name Khoroáthos from Tanais Tablets, Katičić considered that "to identify this personal name as an indirect trace of the name for the Croats is a serious and fundamentally convincing thesis. No more and no less than that, but there is, however, no total certainty in that thesis either", while Matasović considered to be "coincidental similarities". The Medieval Latin C(h)roatae and Greek form Khrōbátoi are adaptations of Western South Slavic plural pronunciation *Xərwate from the late 8th and early 9th century, and came to Greek via a Frankish source. To the Proto-Slavic singular form are closest Old Russian xorvaty (*xъrvaty) and German-Lusatian Curuuadi from 11th and 12th century sources, while the old plural form *Xъrvate is correctly reflected in Old Russian Xrovate, Xrvate, Church Slavonic xarьvate and Old Croatian Hrvate. The form Charvát in Old Czech came from Croatian-Chakavian or Old Polish (Charwaty). The Croatian ethnonym Hr̀vāt (sl.) and Hrváti (pl.) in the Kajkavian dialect also appear in the form Horvat and Horvati, while in the Chakavian dialect in the form Harvat and Harvati.
Distribution Croatian place names can be found in northern Slavic regions such as Moravia (Czech Republic) and Slovakia, Poland, along the river Saale in Germany, in Austria and Slovenia, and in the south in Greece, Albania among others.
In Germany along Saale river there were Chruuati near Halle in 901 AD, Chruuati in 981 AD, Chruazis in 1012 AD, Churbate in 1055 AD, Grawat in 1086 AD, Curewate (now Korbetha), Großkorbetha (Curuvadi and Curuuuati 881-899 AD) and Kleinkorbetha, and Korbetha west of Leipzig; In Moravia are Charwath, or Charvaty near Olomouc, in Slovakia are Chorvaty and Chrovátice near Varadka. The Charwatynia near Kashubians in district Wejherowo, and Сhаrwаtу or Klwaty near Radom in Poland among others.