The first historical mention of this settlement, then called "Burum" as well as "Arotebrarum Portum" in the history of Pomponius Mela, a Roman historian who wrote in the year AD 43 detailing a description of the "Portus Magnus Artabrorum", the "great port of the Artabri". The current toponym Ferrol, though, can only be traced back to the Middle Ages; a document of 1087" "instances sancto Iuliano de Ferrol, nearby the monastery of San Martín de Jubia (12th century, in Romanesque style), where Ferrol is probably the local evolution of the genitive form of the Latin name Ferreolus; Ferrol was probably, in origin, the estate of one Ferreolus. In 1982 the government of Spain adopted officially Ferrol in consonance with its long history and tradition."