How did France get its name?
The borders of modern France closely align with those of the ancient territory of Gaul, inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. Gaul was conquered by the Romans in the first century BC, and the Gauls eventually adopted Romance speech and culture. Gaul’s eastern frontiers along the Rhine were overrun by Germanic tribes in the fourth century AD, principally the Franks, from which the ancient name of “Francie” derived. The modern name “France” derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of Francia (France) around Paris. [source: http://en.wikipedia.
The Franks were originally a Germanic tribe that settled in what is modern France. There they intermarried with both the native Celtic peoples and the Gallo-Romans. The first Frankish king to adopt Christianity was Clovis, from whose name “Louis”–a very popular name for French Kings, since there were at least 16 of them–was derived. Another interesting side note: many Middle Easterners in the Middle Ages referred to ALL western Europeans as “Franks.
