This article is a non-exhaustive lists of names used by the Dacian people, who were among the inhabitants of

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

before and during the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. Many hundreds of personal names and

placename Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

s are known from ancient sources, and they throw light on the

Dacian language Dacian is an extinct language, generally believed to be Indo-European, that was spoken in the Carpathian region in antiquity. In the 1st century, it was probably the predominant language of the ancient regions of Dacia and Moesia and possib ...

and the extent to which it differed from

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

Anthroponyms

Around 1150 Dacian anthroponyms (personal names) and 900 toponyms (placenames) have been preserved in ancient sources. As far as the

onomastic Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An '' orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, ...

(proper names) of Dacians and Thracians is concerned, opinions are divided. According to Crossland (1982), the evidence of names from the Dacian, Mysian and Thracian area seems to indicate divergence of a 'Thraco-Dacian' language into northern and southern groups of dialects, but not so different as to rank Thracian and Dacian as separate languages, There were also the development of special tendencies in word formation and of certain secondary phonetic features in each group. Mateescu (1923), Rosetti (1978) sustain that Thracian onomastic include elements that are common to Geto-Dacians and Bessians (a Thracian tribe). A part of researchers support that onomastically, Dacians are not different from the other Thracians in Roman Dacia's inscriptions. But recently, D. Dana basing himself on new onomastic material recorded in Egyptian

ostraka An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone ...

suggested criteria which would make possible to distinguish between closely related Thracian and Dacian-Moesian names and singled out certain specific elements for the latter. In Georgiev's opinion (1960; 1977) Dacian placenames and personal names are "completely different" from their Thracian counterparts. Several Dacian names have also been identified with

ostracon An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ston ...

s of Dacian cavalry recruited after the Roman conquest and stationed in East Egypt, i.e. Dadas and Dadazi, Zoutoula, Dotos and Dotouzi, Dieri and Diernais, Diengis, Dida(s), Blaikisa, Blegissa, Diourdanos, Thiadicem, Avizina, Dourpokis, Kaigiza, Dardiolai, Denzibalos (see also Dacian king name Deki-balos), Denzi-balus (attested in Britain), Pouridour, Thiaper and Tiatitis, Dekinais, *Rolouzis, (See

Ostraca An ostracon ( Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ...

from Krokodilo and Didymoi)

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Toponyms

}) , , Hypothetically located at one of the following sites in

Oltenia Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania ...

(Southwestern Romania): * Valea Perilor, commune Cătunele, Gorj County *

Motru Motru () is a city in Romania, Gorj County. It is situated on the river Motru in western Oltenia. The county capital Târgu Jiu is located about 35 km northeast. The city administers eight villages: Dealu Pomilor, Horăști, Însurăței, ...

, Gorj County *

Gura Motrului Gura may refer to: Places Eritrea * Gura, Eritrea, a formerly-important town of the Ottoman, Egyptian, Ethiopian, and Italian Empires India * Gura Sonigara, small village in Rajasthan, India * Gura, Nakodar, small village in Punjab, India * Gur ...

, commune

Butoiești Butoiești is a commune located in Mehedinți County, Oltenia Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1 ...

, Mehedinți County *

Botoșești-Paia Botoșești-Paia is a commune in Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bu ...

Dolj County Dolj County (; originally meant ''Dol(no)- Jiu'', "lower Jiu", as opposed to '' Gorj'' (''upper Jiu'')) is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Oltenia, with the capital city at Craiova. Demographics In 2011, the c ...

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

Geographia The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...

, Tabula Peutingeriana , , - , 3 ,

Apula ''Apula'' is an extinct genus of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the subfamily Klikiinae † of the family Elonidae Elonidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropods moll ...

(''Apulon'') , , Piatra Craivii, 20 km North of

Alba-Iulia Alba Iulia (; german: Karlsburg or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; hu, Gyulafehérvár; la, Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, Tabula Peutingeriana , Apulum in Latin, see also

Apuli The Apuli or Biefi were a Dacian tribe centered at the Dacian town ''Apulon'' (Latin '' Apulum'') near what is now Alba Iulia in Transylvania, Romania. ''Apuli'' has clear resemblance to Apulia, the ancient southeastern Italy region, which is b ...

, - , 4 , Bersobis (''Berzobim'') , "White, shine" including birch-tree from root *bhereg > ber(e)z Alternatively, it could be compared with Berzama, place name from Thrace between Amhialos and Kabyle and Bactrian Bareza 'height' , Modern

Berzovia Berzovia ( hu, Zsidovin) is a commune in Caraș-Severin County, Banat, Romania with a population of 4,165 people. It is composed of three villages: Berzovia, Fizeș (''Krassófűzes'') and Gherteniș (''Gertenyes''). It is mentioned on the Tabula ...

village in

Caraș-Severin County Caraș-Severin () is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița ...

, on the bank of river Bârzava, Romania , The sole surviving sentence from Trajan's campaign journal in the Latin grammar work of Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae , , - , 5 , Napoca (''Napuca'') , The following are the most important hypotheses regarding ''Napocas etymology: * Dacian name having the same root "nap" (cf. ancient

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

root "nap") with that of the Dacia's river Naparis attested by

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

. It has an augmentative suffix uk/ok i.e. over, great * Name derived from that of the Dacianized

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

tribe known as Napae * Name probably akin to the indigenous (

) element in

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in ...

, the word năpârcă 'viper' cf. Albanian nepërkë, nepërtkë * Name derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

term ''napos'' () "timbered valley" * Name derived from the

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

''*snā-p-'' ( Pokorny 971–2) "to flow, to swim, damp". Independent of these hypotheses, scholars agree that the name of the settlement predates the Roman conquest (AD 106). , Cluj-Napoca, Romania , Tabula Peutingeriana , , -

Hydronyms

Notes

References

Ancient

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Modern

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Google books
* *

External links

and
full list of names Ostraca de Krokodilo

Inscription on costoboc funeral stone in Rome

Vasile Pârvan, Cetatea Tropaeum. Consideraţii istorice
{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Dacian Names Dacia Dacian language Dacian names