Scotia is a Latin placename derived from Scoti, a Latin name for the Gaels,[1] first attested in the late 3rd century.[1] The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" around 500 A.D. From the 9th century on, its meaning gradually shifted, so that it came to mean only the part of Britain lying north of the Firth of Forth: the Kingdom of Scotland.[1] By the later Middle Ages it had become the fixed Latin term for what in English is called Scotland.