The Anglo-Saxon historian Bede, writing in Latin, used the name , with the plural "". The "e" vowel in this spelling could be taken from the Anglo-Saxon language's word for the Britons: , also spelled "Britt-", "Bryt", "Brytt"-, "Bret", and "Brit". The Anglo-Saxons probably took this name from the Romano-British. The was a word used in Britain from the 5th century. Whether the Anglo-Saxons took the name "Brett" from the Latin name or from a British word of the same meaning is unknown. The Anglo-Saxons must have started using the word "Brett" by the 6th century. If they had copied the British word at a later time, the word would have had -"th"- instead of -"t"-, like the . In that case, the Old English copy would have had -"þ"- or -"ð"- in the place of -"tt"-.