Ebro river

Name

The Greeks called the river Ἴβηρ (Ibēr), abir, ah'ir and the Romans called it the Hibēr, Ibēr, or Ibērus flūmen, leading to its current name. The Iberian Peninsula and the Hibērī or Ibērī (the people of the area) were named after the river. It is not known with any certainty whether the Greeks used a local native name for the river, nor is it known what the words hibēr or ibēr might have meant. In modern Basque the word ibar means 'valley' or 'watered meadow', while ibai means 'river', but it is unknown whether these words are related to the etymology of the Ebro River. There are rivers in the Balkans called Ibar (Montenegro and Serbia) and Evros (Bulgaria and Greece). The Greek name might have referred to the Jewish colonies along the river and around the area, as the Hebrew word for a Hebrew-speaking Jew or Hebrew-speaking colony is Ivrí or Ivērí.