Name of Syria

The name Syria is latinized from the Greek Συρία Suría. Herodotus used it loosely to refer to Cappadocia. In Greek usage, Συρία Suría and Ασσυρία Assuría were used almost interchangeably, but in the Roman Empire, Syria and Assyria came to be used as distinct geographical terms. "Syria" in the Roman Empire period referred to the region of Syria (the western Levant, "those parts of the Empire situated between Asia Minor and Egypt"), while "Assyria" (Asōristān) was part of the Persian Empire, and only very briefly came under Roman control (AD 116–118, marking the historical peak of Roman expansion).

Etymologically, the name Syria is connected to Assyria, ultimately from the Assyrian Aššur. Theodor Nöldeke in 1881 was the first to give philological support to the assumption that Syria and Assyria have the same etymology, a suggestion going back to John Selden (1617). Current academic opinion favours the connection.

The Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية‎‎ al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah, since 1961) inherits its name from the Ottoman Vilâyet-i Sûriye, established in 1865. The choice of the ancient Latin name for the Ottoman province reflects a growing historical consciousness among the local intellectuals at the time. The Classical Arabic name for the region is بلاد اَلشَّأم bilād aš-ša'm ("land to the north", modern Standard Arabic اَلشَّام aš-šām) from شأم š'm "left hand; northern".

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