Although first recorded only in 1271 in the form "terra Obruth", the name of the town might have derived from a supposed (not attested) Dacian word for gold, "*obrud". The Romans erected a small fortification here in the 2nd century AD. It was part of the defence system of the gold mines nearby, in "Alburnus Maior" (nowadays, Roșia Montană), but it was abandoned in the 3rd century. The town's modern name reflects a characteristic vowel shift (from "o" to "a") of the medieval Hungarian language.