Etymology

The first preserved mention of the name "Bosnia" is in De Administrando Imperio, a politico-geographical handbook written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII in the mid-10th century (between 948 and 952) describing the "small country" (χωρίον in Greek) of "Bosona" (Βοσώνα). The Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja from 1172–96 of Bar's Roman Catholic Christian Archbishop names Bosnia, and references an earlier source from the year of 753 - the De Regno Sclavorum (Of the Realm of Slavs). The name "Bosnia" probably comes from the name of the Bosna river around which it has been historically based, which was recorded in the Roman era under the name Bossina. More direct roots of the river's names are unknown. Philologist Anton Mayer proposed a connection with the Indo-Europeanroot *bos or *bogh, meaning "running water". Certain Roman sources similarly mention Bathinus flumen as a name of the Illyrian Bosona, both of which would mean "flowing water" as well. Other theories involve the rare Latin termBosina, meaning boundary, and possible Slavic origins.

The origins of the name Herzegovina may be identified with greater precision. In the Early Middle Ages the corresponding region was known as Zahumlje (Hum), after the Zachlumoi tribe of southern Slavs which inhabited it. In the 1440s, the region - adjoined to medieval Bosnia since the early 1300s - was ruled by the powerful Bosnian nobleman Stephen Vukčić Kosača. In a document sent to Friedrich III on 20 January 1448, Kosača styled himself "Herzog of Saint Sava, Lord of Hum and Primorje, Grand Duke of Bosnia"; Herzog being the German word for "duke", and so the lands he controlled would later be known as Herzegovina ("Dukedom", from the addition of -ovina, "land"). The region was administered by the Ottomans as the Sanjak of Herzegovina (Hersek) within the Eyalet of Bosnia up until the formation of the short-livedHerzegovina Eyalet in the 1830s. Following the death of its founder and ruler vizier Ali-paša Rizvanbegović in the 1850s, the two eyalets were merged, and the new joint-entity was thereafter commonly referred to as Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On initial proclamation of independence in 1992 the country's official name was the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina but following the 1995 Dayton Agreementand the new constitution that accompanied it the name was officially changed to Bosnia and Herzegovina.