This list includes European countries and regions that were part of the Roman Empire, or that were given Latin place names in historical references. As a large portion of the latter were only created during the Middle Ages, often based on scholarly etiology, this is not to be confused with a list of the actual names modern regions and settlements bore during the classical era.

Background

Until the Modern Era, Latin was the common language for scholarship and mapmaking. During the 19th and 20th centuries, German scholars in particular have made significant contributions to the study of historical place names, or Ortsnamenkunde. These studies have, in turn, contributed to the study of genealogy. For genealogists and historians of pre-Modern Europe, knowing alternate names of places is vital to extracting information from both public and private records. Even specialists in this field point out, however, that the information can be easily taken out of context, since there is a great deal of repetition of place names throughout Europe; reliance purely on apparent connections should therefore be tempered with valid historical methodology.

Caveats and notes

Latin place names are not always exclusive to one place — for example, there were several Roman cities whose names began with Colonia and then a more descriptive term. During the Middle Ages, these were often shortened to just Colonia. One of these, Colonia Agrippinensis, retains the name today in the form of Cologne. Early sources for Roman names show numerous variants and spellings of the Latin names. The modern canonical name is listed first. Sources are listed chronologically. In general, only the earliest source is shown for each name, although many of the names are recorded in more than one of the sources. Where the source differs in spelling, or has other alternatives, these are listed following the source. As an aid to searching, variants are spelled completely, and listed in most likely chronology. Superscripts indicate:

Cities and towns in Austria

Cities and towns in Belgium

Cities and towns in the Czech Republic

Cities and towns in Denmark

Cities and towns in Estonia

Cities and towns in Finland

Cities and towns in France

Cities and towns in Germany

Cities and towns in Hungary

Cities and towns in Ireland

Cities and towns in Latvia

Cities and towns in Moldova

Cities and towns in Monaco

Cities and towns in the Netherlands

Cities and towns in Norway

Cities and towns in Poland

Cities and towns in Russia

Cities and towns in San Marino

Cities and towns in Slovakia

Cities and towns in Slovenia

Cities and towns in Sweden

Cities and towns in Switzerland

Cities and towns in Ukraine

Sources

In order of likely publication: