section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English name Russia first appeared in the 14th century, borrowed from Medieval Latin: Russia, used in the 11th century and frequently in 12th-century British sources, in turn derived from Russi, ' the Russians ' and the suffix -ia. In modern historiography, this state is usually denoted as Kievan Rus' after its capital city. Another Medieval Latin name for Rus' was Ruthenia.
  
  In Russian, the current name of the country, Россия (Rossiya), comes from the Byzantine Greek name for Rus', Ρωσία (Rosía). A new form of the name Rus ', Росия (Rosiya), was borrowed from the Greek term and first attested in 1387. The name Rossiia appeared in Russian sources in the late 15th century, but until the end of the 17th century the country was more often referred to by its inhabitants as Rus ', the Russian land (Russkaia zemlia), or the Muscovite state (Moskovskoe gosudarstvo), among other variations. In 1721, Peter the Great changed the name of the state from Tsardom of Russia (Russian: Русское царство, romanized: Russkoye tsarstvo) or Tsardom of Muscovy (Russian: Московское царство, romanized: Moskovskoye tsarstvo) to Russian Empire (Rossiiskaia imperiia).
  
  There are several words in Russian which translate to "Russians" in English. The noun and adjective русский, russkiy refers to ethnic Russians. The adjective российский, rossiiskiy denotes Russian citizens regardless of ethnicity. The same applies to the more recently coined noun россиянин, rossiianyn, "Russian" in the sense of citizen of the Russian state.
  
  According to the Primary Chronicle, the word Rus' is derived from the Rus' people, who were a Swedish tribe, and where the three original members of the Rurikid dynasty came from. The Finnish word for Swedes, ruotsi, has the same origin. Later archeological studies mostly confirmed this theory.