Romania Government     Home   Names   History   Government and politics   Counties   Geography   Economy   Demographics   National holidays   Cluture   Sports in Romania   Image Galery   Internatinal rankings   External links The name of Romania (România) comes from Român (Romanian) which is a derivative of the word Romanus ("Roman") from Latin. The fact that Romanians call themselves a derivative of Romanus (Rom.: Român/Rumân) is scholarly mentioned as late as the 16th century by many authors among whom Italian Humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia and Walachia. The oldest surviving document written in the Romanian language is a 1521 letter (known as "Neacsu's Letter from Câmpulung") which notifies the mayor of Brasov about the imminent attack of the Ottoman Turks. This document is also notable for having the first occurrence of "Rumanian" in a Romanian written text, Wallachia being here named The Rumanian Land - Teara Rumâneasca (Teara < Latin Terra = land). In the following centuries, Romanian documents use interchangeably two spelling forms: Român and Rumân. Socio-linguistic evolutions in the late 17th century lead to a process of semantic differentiation: the form "rumân", presumably usual among lower classes, got the meaning of "bondsman", while the form "român" kept an ethno-linguistic meaning. After the abolition of the serfage in 1746, the form "rumân" gradually disappears and the spelling definitively stabilises to the form "român", "românesc". The name "România" as common homeland of all Romanians is documented in the early 19th century. Many Romanians take pride in being the most eastern Romance people, completely surrounded by non-Latin peoples ("a Latin island in a Slavic sea").