Even though the Garachi of Azerbaijan call themselves "Dom" (the name "Garachi" was given to them by the local population and derives from the Azeri word "qara" - "black" and the suffix "-çı" denoting the stem-word's function/occupation), they do not seem to share same origins with the Dom people. According to Jean-Marie Chopin, the Azerbaijani Garachi descend from the medieval Romani nomads of Central Asia. In 1944, Vasily Yan suggested that the Garachi of Azerbaijan and the Dom of Iran (sometimes referred to as the Garachi) differ in terms of their origins.