Terminology of the British Isles

The terminology of the British Isles refers to the words and phrases that are used to describe the (sometimes overlapping) geographical and political areas of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and the smaller islands which surround them. The terms are often a source of confusion, partly owing to the similarity between some of the actual words used but also because they are often used loosely. Many of the words carry geographical and political connotations which are affected by the history of the islands.

The purpose of this article is to explain the meanings of and relationships among the terms in use; many of these classifications are contentious .

Summary

The use of terms depends on context; words and phrases can be grouped into geographical, political, linguistic and sporting terms. In brief, the main terms and their simple explanations are as follows:
* Geographical terms:
** The British Isles is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Continental Europe. It includes Ireland, Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Shetland, Orkney and thousands of smaller islands. Traditionally the Channel Islands are included, though they are geographically closer to mainland continental Europe, off the French coast of Normandy. This, in part, has resulted in the term being disputed.
*** Great Britain is the largest island of the archipelago.
*** Ireland is the second-largest island of the archipelago and lies directly to the west of Great Britain. The island of Ireland itself has its own islands.
*** The full list of islands of the British Isles includes over 6,000 islands, of which 51 have an area larger than .
* Political terms:
** The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the parliamentary constitutional monarchy occupying the island of Great Britain, the small nearby islands (but not the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands), and the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland. Usually, it is shortened to ''the United Kingdom'' or ''the UK'', or ''Britain''.''; '' ''Great Britain'' is sometimes used as a short form and is the name used by the UK in some international organisations. The abbreviation ''GB'' is frequently used for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in international agreements, e.g. Universal Postal Union and Road Traffic Convention, as well as in the ISO 3166 country codes (GB and GBR). ''England'' was also formerly used synecdochically to refer to the whole United Kingdom but this usage became rare early in the 20th century (though it persists in other languages).
** Ireland is the sovereign republic occupying the larger portion of the island of Ireland. To distinguish the state from the island, or to distinguish either of these from Northern Ireland, it is also called "the Republic of Ireland" or simply "the Republic". In the past, its Irish-language name, ''Éire'' (or ''Eire'' without the diacritic), was often used in an English-language context to distinguish it from "Northern Ireland".
** England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the four countries of the United Kingdom, though they are also referred to, especially in sporting contexts, as the home nations of the United Kingdom.
** England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are separate legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom.Though the statute law applicable in Wales has diverged further from that applicable in England since devolution from the UK government to the National Assembly for Wales, "England and Wales" remains a single jurisdiction.
** Great Britain means the countries of England, Wales and Scotland, considered as a unit."Great Britain", New Oxford American Dictionary: "Great Britain: England, Wales, and Scotland considered as a unit. The name is also often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom.";
** British Islands consists of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. These are the polities within the British Isles that have the British monarch as head of state.
* Linguistic terms:
** The two sovereign states in the region, the United Kingdom and Ireland, are frequently referred to as ''countries''. So too are England, Wales, Scotland and, to a lesser extent, Northern Ireland (as is the whole island of Ireland).
** British is an adjective of the United Kingdom; for example, a citizen of the UK is called a British citizen—but for citizenship purposes "British" includes the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
** Anglo- is often used as an adjectival prefix referring to the United Kingdom (notwithstanding that its original meaning is "English") particularly in the field of diplomatic relations. It can also refer to the English language, to anglophone peoples and can have a variety of other shades of meaning.
** Wales is sometimes called the ''Principality of Wales'', although this has no modern constitutional basis.
** Northern Ireland is often referred to as a ''province'' or called ''Ulster'', after the traditional Irish province of Ulster within which it is located.
* Sport
** Forms of national representation vary from sport to sport. England, Scotland and Wales often compete separately as ''nations''. In some sports—such as rugby and cricket—the island of Ireland competes as a nation; in others, most notably association football, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland field separate teams. In these contexts England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland/Northern Ireland are sometimes described as ''the home nations''.
**Forms of representation can also vary within a sport. In men's association football, for instance, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland compete as separate nations at the FIFA World Cup but join together as the Great Britain Olympic football team ("Team GB") for the Olympics.
** Rugby union players from both Ireland and Great Britain play for British and Irish Lions representing the four "Home Unions" of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
** Great Britain is sometimes used to mean United Kingdom. For example, at the Olympic Games, the team called "Great Britain" marches under the letter "G" in the Parade of Nations and represents Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However, since athletes from Northern Ireland have entitlement to dual nationality, they have the choice of participating in either the Great Britain team or the Republic of Ireland team.'Irish and GB in Olympic row' BBC Sport 27 January, 2004
retrieved 1 January 2011 Conversely, at the Universiade, the team marches under the full name "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" under the letter "U" in the Parade of Nations.
** In the majority of individual sports (e.g. tennis and athletics), at the international level competitors are identified as GB if they are from Great Britain or Northern Ireland. A small number of sports (e.g. golf, darts, snooker) identify participants as representing their constituent country. In the Commonwealth Games, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each compete as separate nations, as do each of the three Crown Dependencies (Ireland is not part of the Commonwealth and is not eligible to participate).

Visual guide

Below is a visual reference guide to some of the main concepts and territories described in this article:

Image:British Isles all.svg, The British Isles
Image:British Islands.svg, The British Islands
Image:United Kingdom in the British Isles.svg, The United Kingdom
Image:Great Britain.svg, Great Britain (island)
Image:Island of Ireland.svg, Ireland (island)
Image:British Isles England.svg, England
Image:British Isles Scotland.svg, Scotland
Image:British Isles Wales.svg, Wales
Image:Republic of Ireland.svg, Republic of Ireland
Image:British Isles Northern Ireland.svg, Northern Ireland
Image:British Isles Isle of Man.svg, The Isle of Man
Image:British Isles Channel Islands.svg, The Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey)

Terminology in detail

* Britain is a political and geographic term which can refer to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,"the term 'Britain' is used informally to mean the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" — quote fro
British Government website
/ref> or the island of Great Britain.
* Great Britain is the largest island in Europe and the political union of three nations, these being:
::*England and Wales is a political and administrative term referring to the two home countries of England and Wales, which share the same legal system. Between 1746 and 1967 the term "England" did legally include Wales.
:::*England (see also the historical Kingdom of England).
:::*Wales (see also the historical Principality of Wales).
::*Scotland (see also the historical Kingdom of Scotland)

:*The historical Kingdom of Great Britain is Britain for the period 1707–1801.
* is the Latin name for Great Britain or for the Roman province of Britain, or a poetic reference to later Britain, or a female personification of Britain.
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually shortened to the United Kingdom (abbreviation UK), is the sovereign state comprising Great Britain plus Northern Ireland since 1927. (The Partition of Ireland took place in 1922, but the consequent change in the official title of the UK was only made by Act of Parliament five years later.) The United Kingdom is often called ''Britain'', even on official websites, where such use is described as "informal". A proposal to rename the political entity as the " United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ulster" was formally recommended by civil servants to the Cabinet in 1949 but ultimately rejected.
:*The historical United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was Great Britain plus Ireland, for the period 1801 to 1922, although the name change after the secession of the Irish Free State only took place in 1927.
* While "United Kingdom" is normally abbreviated ''UK'', the official ISO 3166 two-letter country code is ''GB'' and the three letter code is ''GBR'' (Ukraine has the two letter code UA and the three letter code UKR). Due to a pre-existing convention originating in the UK's JANET academic computer network, the UK's Internet top-level domain is ''.uk'', a break from the TCP/IP practice of following ISO 3166 (a ''.gb'' domain has also been used to a limited extent in the past but is now defunct).
*''GB'' was also used on car number plates to indicate the United Kingdom until September, 2021. The car sticker has been 'UK' since then.
* Ireland ( ga, Éire) refers, geographically, to the island of Ireland, or to any of the following:

:''Historically:''
:*The Kingdom of Ireland was Ireland for the period 1541–1801. (The King of Ireland remained Head of State in the Irish Free State and Ireland/Éire until the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 abolished that status).
:*The Irish Republic, established by the Irish Declaration of Independence, was a 32-county republic encompassing the entire island, during the period 1919–22—though its ''de facto'' rule did not encompass all of the island. During this period, according to British law, Ireland remained part of the UK though its independence was recognised by Russia.
:*Southern Ireland was a 26-county region of Ireland that was created when Ireland was partitioned under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was superseded by:
:*The Irish Free State is Ireland excepting Northern Ireland during the period 1922–37.
:''Present'':
:*Ireland ( ga, Éire) is the political entity consisting of the island of Ireland excepting Northern Ireland, 1937–present. This is the name of the state according to the Irish Constitution and the United Nations.
:*The Republic of Ireland is a commonly used description of Ireland excepting Northern Ireland, 1949–present. It is also the name used by the international Association Football team.
::The terms ''Irish Republic'', ''Southern Ireland'', the ''Irish Free State'', the ''Free State'', the ''26 Counties'' and ''Éire'' (in English-language texts) have been used synonymously with the ''Republic of Ireland''. Of these, ''Southern Ireland'' and ''Irish Free State'', in particular, are seen as outdated. ''Eire'' (spelt without the Irish '' fada'') was the British legal spelling from the Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act 1938 until the Ireland Act 1949, and informally for some years after.
:*Northern Ireland (1921–present). That part of the island of Ireland northeast of the line of partition of 1921, and which is still part of the United Kingdom. Various alternative names have been used or proposed for Northern Ireland. It is sometimes referred to as "the North of Ireland", "the Six Counties" or (in extremist usage) the "occupied six counties", especially by Irish Nationalists. The "Northern" in "Northern Ireland" is not completely accurate. The most northerly point on the island, Malin Head, is in the Republic of Ireland—in County Donegal's Inishowen Peninsula.
:*Ulster is the name of one of Ireland's four traditional provinces. The province contains nine northern counties, six of which make up Northern Ireland, and three of which are part of the Republic of Ireland. It is also often used by Unionists to refer to the smaller Northern Ireland. Though Ulster has not been a political entity since the ancient Gaelic provincial kingdoms, it remains associated with a geographical area and is used in sporting and cultural contexts. See Ulster (disambiguation).
:''In sport''
:*In Gaelic games, no distinction is recognised between the GAA counties of the Republic and those of Northern Ireland. County teams play in their provincial championships (where the six counties of Ulster within Northern Ireland and three within the Republic all play in the Ulster championship) and the winners of these play in the All-Ireland championship. Even within Northern Ireland, the tricolour flag of the Republic of Ireland is flown at all games. At bigger games, where an anthem is played, it is always the national anthem of the Republic. In the case of the International Rules series against Australia, an Irish national team is chosen from all 32 counties.
:*In association football, the teams correspond to political entities: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In accordance with UEFA and FIFA's rules, each of these countries has its own football league: the Irish Football League and the League of Ireland respectively.
:*In rugby union, rugby league, field hockey, cricket, boxing, golf, athletics and others the ''Ireland'' team is drawn from the whole island (i.e. both the Republic and Northern Ireland). Many sports organisations are subdivided along provincial lines e.g. Gaelic Athletic Association, golf.
* The British Isles is a term used to mean the island of Great Britain plus the island of Ireland and many smaller surrounding islands, including the Isle of Man and, in some contexts, the Channel Islands ( Guernsey and Jersey). See British Isles naming dispute for details of the conflict over use of this term.
:* Anglo-Celtic Isles is an alternative term (in limited use) for the archipelago more commonly referred to as the ''British Isles''. It is intended as a geographic term free of any political implication and uses the macro-cultural grouping term Anglo-Celtic, referring to the peoples from which the majority of the island group's population are descended—the Anglo-Saxons and the Celts (it can also be inclusive of the Anglo-Normans).
:* Islands of the North Atlantic is another suggested replacement term for ''British Isles'', without the same political connotations. However, its convolution and impracticality due to implying inclusion of fellow North Atlantic islands such as Iceland have made it unworkable and it has not come into common use. The term was used as part of the Strand 3 level of negotiations for the Belfast agreement. (Its acronym, IONA, is also the name of the small but historically important island of Iona off the coast of Scotland.)
:* Great Britain and Ireland, or ''Britain and Ireland'' are also used as alternatives to the term British Isles.
:* On the 2011 Jersey census, "British Isles" is used to refer to the other British islands than Jersey, but does not include the Republic of Ireland.Jersey Census Results
p. 9. 2011. AccessedL 1 March 2022.
* British Islands (a legal term not in common usage) is the UK, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.
* Brittany, itself a corruption of ''Britain'', and sometimes formerly known as ''Little Britain'' is a historical Duchy in the West of France, now a French region; for this modern administrative sense, see Brittany (administrative region).

Geographical distinctions

The British Isles

The British Isles is a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Continental Europe. It includes Ireland, Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Shetland, Orkney, and thousands of smaller islands. Traditionally the Channel Islands, are included, however these specific islands are geographically part of mainland continental Europe, as they are positioned off the French coast of Normandy. The term is disputed (see British Isles naming dispute).

Great Britain

Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles. On Great Britain are located three constituent countries of the United Kingdom: Scotland in the north, England in the south and east and Wales in the west. There are also numerous smaller islands off its coast (''not'' coloured red on the attached map) that are administered as part of England, Scotland and Wales. The inclusion of these smaller islands means political 'Great Britain' covers a slightly larger area than the island of Great Britain.

Ireland

The second largest island in the group is Ireland. Most of the island is in the Republic of Ireland. The north east of the island (Northern Ireland) is part of the United Kingdom. There are also numerous smaller islands off the coast of Ireland.

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man lies between Great Britain and Ireland. It is governed as a British Crown dependency, having its own parliament, but with the United Kingdom responsible for its defence and external relations.

Channel Islands

Although the Channel Islands are associated with the United Kingdom politically as Crown Dependencies, they are geographically an outcrop of the nearby French mainland (specifically, the Armorican massif), and historically they are the last remaining parts of the Duchy of Normandy, the Duke of Normandy being a title belonging to the British monarch.

Political terms in more detail

The United Kingdom

''The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'' is the official full title of the state. This name appears on official documentation such as British passports. For convenience, the name is usually shortened to ''United Kingdom'', ''UK'' or ''Britain''.

The ''United Kingdom'' is a sovereign state. Its four constituent countries are sometimes considered to be of different status. This view may be supported by the existence of devolved governments with different levels of power in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales (see Asymmetrical federalism).

Wales is also often erroneously described as a principality of the United Kingdom. The title of Prince of Wales is usually given to the heir apparent to the British throne but it has no official political or other role in respect of Wales (though since the early 20th century Princes of Wales have preferentially taken on ceremonial royal duties in Wales on an informal basis). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has defined Wales as a "country" rather than a "principality" since 2011, following a recommendation by the British Standards Institute and the Welsh Government.

Northern Ireland is sometimes described by United Kingdom citizens as a province of the United Kingdom, which derives from the Irish province of Ulster, of which Northern Ireland is a part. Northern Ireland also had, until 1972, a far greater degree of self-government than the other constituent parts of the UK.

''Great Britain'' is both a geographical and a political entity. Geographically, it is one island, but as a political entity it also includes the smaller offshore islands that are administered as part of its constituent nations – England, Wales and Scotland – such as England's Isle of Wight, Wales' Anglesey and Scotland's Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands.

The abbreviation ''GB'' is sometimes officially used for the United Kingdom, for example in the Olympics, or as the vehicle registration plate country identification code for UK-registered cars ''(see also British car number plates)''. ''SCO'' for Scotland, ''CYM'' for Wales (Cymru), ''NI'' for Northern Ireland, or ''ENG'' for England can also be used. From 28 September 2021, UK will be the official country code on car registration plates.

The internet code ''.gb,'' although allocated to the UK, is virtually unused and UK web domains use ''.uk''.

Though is the United Kingdom's ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, is exceptionally reserved for the United Kingdom on the request of the country.

The four constituent parts of the UK are also known, particularly in sporting contexts, as ''Home Nations'' or the "Four Nations". The BBC refers to its UK-wide broadcasting operation as ''Nations and Regions'' ("regions" referring to geographic regions of England. Thus the naming conventions tend towards describing distinct ''regions'' or ''nations'' which exist within a single sovereign ''state''.

In sport, the home nations mostly have their own separate national teams – England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, for example in association football. Sporting contests between the Four Nations are known as "Home internationals" (an example is the British Home Championship in football).

The governing body for football in Northern Ireland is called the Irish Football Association (the IFA), having been in existence since some forty years before Partition. Its counterpart in the Republic (plus Derry City FC) is the Football Association of Ireland (the FAI). The Northern Ireland national team retained the name "Ireland" for some fifty years after partition. Since around 1970 the two teams have been consistently referred to as "Northern Ireland" and "Republic of Ireland" respectively. The UK competes as Great Britain at the Olympic Games. According to the Olympic Charter the Olympic Council of Ireland represents the entire island of Ireland. Olympic athletes from Northern Ireland may choose whether to represent the UK or the Republic of Ireland.

Since the Good Friday Agreement and the subsequent implementation legislation, sporting organisation (and several other organisations, e.g. tourism, Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots language boards) on the island of Ireland has increasingly been cross-border.

Citizens of the UK are called ''British'', ''Britons'', ''Brits'', (colloquial) or ''Britisher'' (archaic). The term ''Unionists'' may also be used when referring to supporters of the Union. Some older slang names for Britons are ''Tommy'' (for British soldiers) and ''Anglo''. Anglo properly refers only to England, but it is sometimes used as a broader reference as an element in compound adjectives: for example, "Anglo-French relations" may be used in newspaper articles when referring to relations between the political entities France and the United Kingdom. ''Anglo-Saxon'' may be used (particularly in Continental European languages) when referring to the whole English-speaking world.

Ireland

Since the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, ''Ireland'' has been the English name of the state which covers approximately five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The name ''Éire'' is used when writing in Irish.

Since the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, the term "Republic of Ireland" is the term used as the additional ''description'' of the state. This term is useful in avoiding ambiguity between the name of the island and the name of the state. However, the term "Ireland" is always used in formal diplomatic contexts such as the European Union or the United Nations. The passport of the Republic of Ireland bears the name ''Éire – Ireland''.

Before the introduction of the 1937 constitution and the new name, the Irish Free State occupied the same territory as the modern state of Ireland. The Irish Free State became an autonomous dominion of the British Empire in 1922 when it seceded from the United Kingdom through the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The King ceased to be its Head of State in 1936 and the state ceased to be a Dominion and left the Commonwealth in 1948.

Traditionally, the island of Ireland is divided into four provinces – Leinster, Connacht, Munster and Ulster, with each of the provinces further divided into counties. The Republic of Ireland takes up 83% of the island, twenty-six of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Northern Ireland takes up the remaining area, six of the traditional nine counties of Ulster.

In Northern Ireland, Irishness is a highly contested identity, with fundamentally different perceptions of national identity between unionists (who generally perceive themselves as being British) and nationalists (who generally consider both communities to be part of the Irish nation).

The Republic of Ireland is often referred to by the nationalist and Republican communities by the term "the Twenty-six Counties", with the connotation that the state constituted as such forms only a portion of the ideal political unit of the Irish Republic, which would consist of all of the thirty-two counties into which the island is divided. The term "the Six Counties" (of Northern Ireland) is also used. Other nationalist terms in use include "the North of Ireland" and "the North". These latter are terms also used by the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ. More extreme terms for Northern Ireland include "the occupied six counties" or "occupied Ireland", which are often used by people who reject the idea of Northern Ireland as a separate entity from the Republic of Ireland.

The Irish passport is available to Irish citizens and can also be applied for abroad through Irish Consular services and the local Irish Embassy. As per the Irish nationality law, any person born on the island of Ireland before 2005, or otherwise a first generation descendant of such a person, is allowed to apply for an Irish passport. As such, people born in Northern Ireland and their children may be Irish citizens and hold an Irish passport if they choose.

British Islands

Under the Interpretation Act 1978 of the United Kingdom, the legal term British Islands (as opposed to the geographical term ''British Isles'') refers to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, together with the Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwicks of Jersey and of Guernsey (which in turn includes the smaller islands of Alderney, Herm and Sark) in the Channel Islands; and the Isle of Man.

On the 2011 Jersey census, "British Isles" as a country of origin is used to refer to the other British islands than Jersey (effectively the British Islands), but does not include the Republic of Ireland.

Special British passports are issued to citizens of the Crown dependencies. On the front of passports issued to residents of the Crown dependencies, the words ''"United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"'' are replaced with the name of the issuing state or island. Pre-Brexit, Crown dependency also bore the title ''"European Union"'' for border control purposes. Crown dependency citizens who have no family ties to the United Kingdom were granted a special limited 'Islander Status' under EU law (article 6 of Protocol 3 in the Treaty of Accession of the UK to the European Community).

Historical aspects

Some suggest an early known for the term might be from ancient Greek writings. Though some of the original texts have been lost, excerpts were quoted or paraphrased by later authors. Parts of the Massaliote Periplus, a merchants' handbook describing searoutes of the sixth century BC, were used in translation in the writings of Avienius around AD 400. Ireland was referred to as ''Ierne'' (''Insula sacra'', the ''sacred island'', as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the race of ''Hiberni''" (''gens hiernorum''), and Britain as ''insula Albionum'', "island of the Albions". Several sources from around 150 BC to AD 70 include fragments of the travel writings of the ancient Greek Pytheas around 320 BC, use the terms ''Albion'' and ''Ierne''Greek , and have been described as referring to the British Isles, including Ireland, as the ''Prettanic'' or ''Brettanic Islands'' () or as , literally "the Britains".
Greek writers called the peoples of these islands the , later (alternative spellings of this and of all relative words have a single tau or a double nu), a name that possibly corresponds to the ''Priteni''. These names may have derived from a "Celtic language" term which may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls who may have used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands.

The Romans called the inhabitants of Gaul (modern France) ''Galli'' or ''Celtae'', the latter term deriving from the Greek name for a central European people. Antiquarians of the seventeenth century who found language connections developed the idea of a race of Celts inhabiting the islands, but this term was not used by the Greeks or Romans for the inhabitants of Britain or Ireland, nor is there any record of the inhabitants of the British Isles referring to themselves as such. Nevertheless, Roman administration later incorporated the province of Britannia into the praetorian prefecture of Gaul, in common with Hispania, which had Celtiberians. Armorica, where the Bretons would settle, was part of ''Gallia Celtica'', so there were tertiary relations between the Britons and Gallic Celts at least. In addition, the Parisii of Gallia Celtica are thought to have founded Aldborough in Britain. Belgae and Silures also came from Gallic areas, although not strictly "Celtic", but from ''Gallia Belgica'' and ''Aquitainia''.

''Priteni'' is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, ''Britain'', and has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne. The latter referred to the early Brythonic speaking inhabitants of the Scottish highlands and the north of Scotland, who are known as the Cruithne in Scottish Gaelic, and who the Romans called Picts or Caledonians.

Romans

Caesar's invasions of Britain brought descriptions of the peoples of what he called ''Britannia pars interior'', "inland Britain", in 55 BC. Throughout Book 4 of his ''Geography'', Strabo is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as ''Prettanikē''; he uses the terms ''Prettans'' or ''Brettans'' loosely to refer to the islands as a group – a common generalisation used by classical geographers. For example, in Geography 2.1.18, ''…οι νοτιώτατοι των Βρεττανών βορειότεροι τούτων εισίν'' ("…the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this").Translation by Roseman, ''op.cit.'' He was writing around AD 10, although the earliest surviving copy of his work dates from the 6th century.
Pliny the Elder writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his ''Naturalis Historia''. He writes of Great Britain: ''Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus.'' ("Albion was its own name, when all he islandswere called the Britannias; I will speak of them in a moment"). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands.
In his ''Geography'' written in the mid 2nd century and probably describing the position around AD 100, Ptolemy includes both Great Britain (Albion) and Ireland ( Iwernia) in the so called ''Bretanic'' island group. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of as '' Iwernia, Bretanic Island'', and Chapter 2 as ''Alwion ic Bretanic Island''.

The name ''Albion'' for Great Britain fell from favour, and the island was described in Greek as Πρεττανία or Βρεττανία, in Latin ''Britannia'', an inhabitant as Βρεττανός, ''Britannus'', with the adjective Βρεττανικός, ''Britannicus'', equating to "British". With the Roman conquest of Britain the name Britannia was used for the province of Roman Britain. The Emperor Claudius was honoured with the agnomen ''Britannicus'' as if he were the conqueror, and coins were struck from AD 46 inscribed DE BRITAN, DE BRITANN, DE BRITANNI, or DE BRITANNIS. With the visit of Hadrian in AD 121 coins introduced a female figure with the label BRITANNIA as a personification or goddess of the place. These and later Roman coins introduced the seated figure of Britannia which would be reintroduced in the 17th century.

In the later years of Roman rule Britons who left Latin inscriptions, both at home and elsewhere in the Empire, often described themselves as ''Brittanus'' or ''Britto'', and where describing their citizenship gave it as ''cives'' of a British tribe or of a ''patria'' (homeland) of ''Britannia'', not ''Roma''. From the 4th century, many Britons migrated from Roman Britain across the English Channel and founded Brittany.

Mediaeval period

While Latin remained the language of learning, from the early mediaeval period records begin to appear in native languages. The earliest indigenous source to use a collective term for the archipelago is the '' Life of Saint Columba'', a hagiography recording the missionary activities of the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba among the peoples of what is now Scotland. It was written in the late seventh century by Adomnán of Iona, an Irish monk living on the Inner Hebridean island. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is Oceani Insulae meaning "Islands of the Ocean" (Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition), it is used sparingly and no ''Priteni''-derived collective reference is made.

Another early native source to use a collective term is the '' Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum'' of Bede written in the early eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is ''insularum'' meaning "islands" (Book 1, 8) and it too is used sparingly. He stated that Britain "studies and confesses one and the same knowledge of the highest truth in the tongues of five nations, namely the Angles, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins", distinguishing between the Brythonic languages of the "ancient Britons" or Old Welsh speakers and other language groups.

Brythonic, Saxon and Viking kingdoms such as Strathclyde, Wessex, and Jórvík amalgamated, leading to the formation of Scotland, and England. Wales was sometimes united under princes or kings such as Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Between 854 and 1171, a kingship of Ireland was established by kings of the regional kingdoms such as Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid, Toirdelbach Ua Briain, Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, and Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, something not achieved in Britain until 1707. In subsequent Norman Ireland, local lords gained considerable autonomy from the Lordship of Ireland until it became the Kingdom of Ireland under direct English rule.

Renaissance mapmakers

Abraham Ortelius makes clear his understanding that England, Scotland and Ireland were politically separate in 1570 by the full title of his map: ''Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio'' ('A representation of England, Scotland and Ireland, or the Britannic islands'). George Lily's 1546 map divides Britain into the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, with Ireland alongside. Some maps from this period also appear to mark Wales, and sometimes Cornwall, as separate areas within Britain, while the history of England created by Polydore Vergil for Henry VIII states, "The whole country of Britain is divided into four parts, whereof the one is inhabited by Englishmen, the other of Scots, the third Welshmen and the fourth of Cornish people."

Maps of the Mediaeval, Renaissance and later periods often referred to '' Albion''. This archaic term was originally used by Ptolemy and Pliny to mean the island of Great Britain. In later centuries its meaning changed to refer only to the area we now call Scotland (''Albany'', or ''Alba'' in Gaelic). ''Albion'' has survived as a poetic name for Britain but it is not in everyday use.

18th and 19th centuries

Following the Acts of Union 1707, a fashion arose, particularly in Scotland, for referring to Scotland as ''North Britain'', while England was sometimes dubbed ''South Britain''. These terms gained in popularity during the 19th century. The most lasting example of this usage was in the name of the North British Railway, which became part of the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, and in the name of the North British Hotel in Edinburgh, opened by the North British Railway in 1902, which retained the name until it reopened in 1991 as The Balmoral.

Evolution of kingdoms and states

The diagram on the right gives an indication of the further evolution of kingdoms and states. In 1603, James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne as "James I of England". He styled himself as ''King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland'', although both kingdoms on Great Britain retained their sovereignty and independent parliaments, the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. (The term "Great Britain" in English itself dates from Middle English as early as , a translation of 12th-century and or and derived from Ptolemy's ''Geography''.)

The Act of Union (1707) united England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the Parliament of Great Britain, then in 1800 Ireland was brought under British government control by the Act of Union (1800) creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Irish unrest culminated in the Irish War of Independence and the 1922 separation of the Irish Free State, which later became a republic with the name Ireland. The majority Protestant northeast continued to be part of what became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

British overseas territories such as Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands have various relationships with the UK. The Commonwealth of Nations, initially formalised in 1931 (the British Commonwealth until 1949), is an association of independent states roughly corresponding to the former British Empire. (This has no connection with the Commonwealth of England, a short-lived republic replacing the previous kingdoms during the English Interregnum (1649–1660).)

Slang

''Blighty'' is a slang word for Britain derived from the Bengali word . Depending on the user, it is meant either affectionately or archly. It was often used by British soldiers abroad in the First World War to refer to home.

Adjectives

The adjectives used to describe the contents and attributes of the various constituent parts of the British Isles also cause confusion.

In the absence of a single adjective to refer to the United Kingdom, ''British'' is generally used to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. However, in a specifically physical geographical sense, ''British'' is used to refer to the island of Great Britain. The adjectival phrase ''Great British'' is very rarely used to refer to the island, other than to contrive a pun on the word ''great'', as in "Great British Food".

''Irish'', refers to people or a characteristic "of Ireland". As such, its meaning is contextual on the meaning of "Ireland" being used: it can relate both to the Irish state, and to the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland, as a constituent part of the United Kingdom, can thus be both ''British'' or ''Irish'', reflected in the ability for residents of Northern Ireland to take either British or Irish citizenship. To be more specific, ''Northern Irish'' is therefore in common usage. Members of the Nationalist communities would not describe themselves as ''British'' and would only use the terms ''Irish'', or specifically ''Northern Irish'' where needed.

The term ''Ulster'' can also be used as an adjective (e.g. " Royal Ulster Constabulary"), but this is more likely to be used by Unionists and has political connotations in the same fashion as its use as a proper noun. The term ''Ulsterman'' (or ''Ulsterwoman'') is common and holds no such political connotation. Likewise, Nationalists might describe, say, a lake in Northern Ireland as ''Irish''.

Note that the geographical term Irish Sea thus far appears to have escaped political connotations, even though territorial control of the waters of the Irish Sea is divided between both the Republic of Ireland and the UK, and also includes a British Crown dependency, the Isle of Man—as yet there appears to be no controversy with the term’s usage to mirror that of "British Isles".

Problems with the use of terms

British Isles

The dictionary definition of the British Isles is that it is a geographical term that refers to the whole of Ireland and Great Britain as well as the surrounding islands. It is sometimes incorrectly used as if identical to the United Kingdom, or to refer to Great Britain and the surrounding islands, excluding the island of Ireland entirely. The BBC
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