The name "Italy" is extremely old. It seems to have been used first in documents of the 5th century BC. To describe a small territory at the tip of the boot-shaped peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea. Historians used to think that the name came from that of a legendary king, Italo. Many other ingenious and improbable theories have been suggested to explain the origin of the name.
No matter what its origins, the name of that small territory at the tip of the boot spreads, little by little, to indicate the whole peninsula. By about AD1000 the name designated a region, a dialect, and a culture. But it was not until the mid-19th century that the many separate nations on the peninsula were united into one nation, the nation to which the ancient name "Italy" was given.
