Alba

Alba is the Gaelic name for Scotia. It is also, in English-language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scotti united in the ninth century as the Scotia, until it developed into the Kingdom of Scotland of the late Middle Ages following the absorption of Strathclyde and English-speaking Lothian in the 12th century. It is cognate with the Irish term Alba and the Manx Gaelic term Nalbin, the two other Gaelic languagess Insular Celtic languages, as well as contemporary words used in Cornish language and Welsh language, both of which are Brythonic Insular Celtic languages. The third surviving Brythonic language, Breton, instead uses Bro-Skos, meaning ‘country of the Scots’. In the past, these terms were names for Great Britain as a whole, related to the Brythonic name Albion.