The name Albania probably derives from the same source as the name of the Alps, the etymology of which is disputed [1]. Like the Alps, the ultimate source of Albania is unknown. It may derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *albho-, which meant 'white'; referring perhaps to the snow-capped mountains of Albania. Others think the source may be a non-Indo-European root *alb-, meaning 'mountain', although this non-Indo-European root is much more hypothetical than the Indo-European root which can be said to have certainly existed. Another idea is that Albania derives from PIE *al-, 'to grow, nourish', from which comes Latin altus, 'high, elevated'.
Albania is the name of a country in Europe as well as the name of an ancient land in the Caucasus (see Caucasian Albania) and also name for Scotland in Gaelic. The Illyrian ethnonym Albanoi was derived from the same source as Albania, as is the modern ethnonym Albanian. The mediaeval ethnonyms Arbanitai and Arbanios and the corresponding modern ethnonyms Arvanite, Arber, and Arbëreshë are also considered to derive from Albania by way of a rhotacism (compare the rhotacism of alb- into arv- in the Neapolitan dialect of Italy).
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