The toponym Albania may indicate several different geographical regions: A country in Southeast Europe; an ancient land in the Caucasus; as well as Scotland, Albania being a Latinization of a Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba; and a city in the U.S. state of New York.

Albania (Southeast Europe)

Albania is the name of a country in Southeast Europe, attested in Medieval Latin. The name has derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Albanoi and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century AD.Lloshi 1999, p. 277. "The Albanians of today call themselves shqiptarë, their country Shqipëri, and their language shqipe. These terms came into use between the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. Foreigners call them albanesi (Italian), Albaner (German), Albanians (English), Alvanos (Greek), and Arbanasi (old Serbian), the country Albania, Albanie, Albanien, Alvania, and Albanija, and the language Albanese, Albanisch, Albanian, Alvaniki, and Arbanashki respectively. All these words are derived from the name Albanoi of an Illyrian tribe and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century AD. Alban could he a plural of alb- arb-, denoting the inhabitants of the plains.Malcolm 1998, p. 29. "Nor is there any mystery about the origin of this name. In the second century Ptolemy referred to a tribe called the 'Albanoi', and located their town, 'Albanopolis', somewhere to the east of Durres."Mëniku & Campos 2012, p. 2. "Albanian is an Indo-European language, but like modern Greek and Armenian, it does not have any other closely related living language. Within the Indo-European family, it forms a group of its own. In Albanian, the language is called shqip. Albania is called Shqipëri, and the Albanians call themselves shqiptarë. Until the fifteenth century the language was known as Arbërisht or Arbnisht, which is still the name used for the language in Italy and Greece. The Greeks refer to all the varieties of Albanian spoken in Greece as Arvanitika. In the second century AD, Ptolemy, the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, used the name Albanoi to refer to an Illyrian tribe that used to live in what is now central Albania. During the Middle Ages the population of that area was referred to as Arbanori or Albanon. It is clear that the words Arbëresh, Arvanitika, and even Albanian and Albania are all related to the older name of the language."Ramadan Marmullaku - 1975, Albania and the Albanians - Page 5 Linguists think that the element *alb- in the root word, is an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, meaning "hill, mountain", also present in Alps.Malcolm 1998, p. 29. "Linguists believe that the ‘Alb-’ element comes from the Indo-European word for a type of mountainous terrain, from which the word ‘Alps’ is also derived." Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the term appears as the ethnonym of Albanians in Medieval Greek documents as Albanoi and Arbanitai, and in Medieval Latin as Albanenses and Arbanenses, gradually entering in other European languages.Elsie, Robert (2005). Albanian literature: A short history. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 3–4. "Their traditional designation, based on a root *alban- and its rhotacized variants *arban-, *albar-, and *arbar-, appears from the eleventh century onwards in Byzantine chronicles (Albanoi, Arbanitai, Arbanites), and from the fourteenth century onwards in Latin and other Western documents (Albanenses, Arbanenses)."Malcolm, Noel. "Kosovo, a short history". London: Macmillan, 1998, p. 22–40 "The name used in all these references is, allowing for linguistic variations, the same: 'Albanenses' or 'Arbanenses' in Latin, 'Albanoi' or 'Arbanitai' in Byzantine Greek. (The last of these, with an internal switching of consonants, gave rise to the Turkish form 'Arnavud', from which 'Arnaut' was later derived.)"

Arbon The toponym Arbon () or ArboPolybius, Histories, 2.11, "Of the Illyrian troops engaged in blockading Issa, those that belonged to Pharos were left unharmed, as a favour to Demetrius; while all the rest scattered and fled to Arbo" ()Polybius, Histories, 2.11, "είς τόν Άρβωνα σκεδασθέντες" is mentioned by Polybius in the History of the World (2nd century BC). It was perhaps an islandStrabo, Geography H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed,"The Libyrnides are the islands of Arbo, Pago, Isola Longa, Coronata, &c., which border the coasts of ancient Liburnia, now Murlaka." in Liburnia or another location within Illyria. Stephanus of Byzantium in the 6th century AD, in his important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica (Εθνικά), cites Polybius, saying it was a city in Illyria and gives a topical name for its inhabitants, calling them Arbonios (Greek: Αρβώνιος) and Arbonites (Greek: Αρβωνίτης).Ethnica, Epitome, page 111, line 14, : Αρβών πόλις Ιλλυριας.Πολύβιος δευτέρα, το εθνικόν Αρβώνιος και Αρβωνίτης, ως Αντρώνιος και Ασκαλωνίτης.

Albanopolis Albanopolis was an ancient Illyrian city in the Roman province of Macedon,Ptolemy. "III.13(12).23". Geography the center of the Illyrian tribe of Albani, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, during 150 AD in his famous work Geography.Madrugearu A, Gordon M. The wars of the Balkan peninsula. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. p. 146 It was located in the Zgërdhesh hill-fort near Krujë, central Albania.Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (), Map 49 & notes.Ancient Indo-European Dialects: Proceedings, Henrik Birnbaum, Jaan Puhvel - 1966 Page 98 The city may have a continuation with the name of the city of Albanon or Arbanon, mentioned during the Middle Ages.

Albanoi (Ἀλβανόί) reappeared in Byzantine documents in the 11th century, around 1043, as the exonym of the Albanians.Robert Elsie (2010), Historical Dictionary of Albania, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, 75 (2 ed.) "Their traditional designation, based on a root *alban- and its rhotacized variants *arban-, *albar-, and *arbar-, appears from the eleventh century onwards in Byzantine chronicles (Albanoi, Arbanitai, Arbanites), and from the fourteenth century onwards in Latin and other Western documents (Albanenses, Arbanenses)." During the late Byzantine period the names Albanoi, alongside Arbanitai, were used interchangeably, and gradually entered other European languages, in which similar derivative names emerged.Lloshi, Xhevat (1999). "Albanian" p. 277. "The Albanians of today call themselves shqiptarë, their country Shqipëri, and their language shqipe. These terms came into use between the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. Foreigners call them albanesi (Italian), Albaner (German), Albanians (English), Alvanos (Greek), and Arbanasi (old Serbian), the country Albania, Albanie, Albanien, Alvania, and Albanija, and the language Albanese, Albanisch, Albanian, Alvaniki, and Arbanashki respectively. All these words are derived from the name Albanoi of an Illyrian tribe and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century AD. Alban could he a plural of alb- arb-, denoting the inhabitants of the plains. The national ethnonym of the Albanians has derived from this Illyrian tribe.History of the Byzantine Empire, 324–1453 By Alexander A. Vasiliev Edition: 2, illustrated Published by Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1958 , (page 613)History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries By Barbara Jelavich Edition: reprint, illustrated Published by Cambridge University Press, 1983 , (page 25)The Indo-European languages By Anna Giacalone Ramat, Paolo Ramat Edition: illustrated Published by Taylor & Francis, 1998 , 9780415064491 (page 481)

Arbanon Arbanon, or Albanon, originally, was a region in the mountainous area to the west of Lake Ohrid and the upper valley of the river Shkumbin, in the 11th century AD.Studies in late Byzantine history and prosopography Volume 242 of Collected studies Variorum reprints; CS242 Volume 242 of Variorum reprint Author Donald MacGillivray Nicol Edition illustrated Publisher Variorum Reprints, 1986 , page. 160

The Albanians are mentioned in Anna Comnena's account Alexiad, as Arbanites, because of their fights against the Normans in the region of Arbanon, during the reign of her father Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118).Robert Elsie Texts and Documents of Albanian History: 1081, Anna Comnena; The Norman Invasion of Albania Before that, in the book History written in 1079–1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was first to refer to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium.Michaelis Attaliotae: Historia, Bonn 1853, p. 8, 18, 297 In later Byzantine usage, the terms Arbanitai and Albanoi, with a range of variants, were used interchangeably, while sometimes the same groups were also called by the classicising name Illyrians.Mazaris 1975, pp. 76–79.N. Gregoras (ed. Bonn) V, 6; XI, 6.

In the 12th to 13th centuries, Arbanon () appears as a principality in Byzantine sources. In 1190 the Principality of Arbanon (Albanian: Principata e Arbërit) became the first Albanian state during the Middle Ages.Clements 1992, p. 31 "By 1190, Byzantium's power had so receded that the archon Progon succeeded in establishing the first Albanian state of the Middle Ages, a principality" Its capital was the city of Krujë,John V. A. Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, p.51. the region in which the town of Arbanon originally was located and from which the principality got its name.Frashëri 1964, p. 42 It seems that this toponym has survived continuously since antiquity in this area.Malcolm, Noel. "Kosovo, a short history". London: Macmillan, 1998, p.22-40 "...and located their town,'Albanopolis', somewhere to the east of Durres. Some such place-name must have survived there, continuously if somewhat hazily, ever since; there was an area called 'Arbanon' in north-central Albania in the eleventh century, and in the early twentieth century 'Arben' was the local name for a region near Kruja". This suggests that probably the toponym "Arbanon" has derived from the ancient city of Albanopolis.Malcolm, Noel. "Kosovo, a short history". London: Macmillan, 1998, p.22-40 "...and located their town, 'Albanopolis', somewhere to the east of Durres. Some such place-name must have survived there, continuously if somewhat hazily, ever since; there was an area called 'Arbanon' in north-central Albania in the eleventh century, and in the early twentieth century 'Arben' was the local name for a region near Kruja...The continuity of this name is a striking fact;"Mëniku & Campos 2012, p. 2. "In the second century AD, Ptolemy, the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, used the name Albanoi to refer to an Illyrian tribe that used to live in what is now central Albania. During the Middle Ages the population of that area was referred to as Arbanori or Albanon. It is clear that the words Arbëresh, Arvanitika, and even Albanian and Albania are all related to the older name of the language."