Over the centuries the land of Estonia has been referred to by many different names. Aesti, Eistland, Estia and Hestia are all words historians have found in various Scandinavian and Germanic records. In the 12th century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus wrote the Danish history book Gesta Danorumon and referred to Estonia as Estia and its people as Estonum.
The Frugården runestone in Sweden dated from the 11th century mentions Estlatum "Estonian lands".
Up until the 20th century a common English spelling used for Estonia was Esthonia. That changed in 1922 when Estonian diplomat Oskar Kallas raised the issue and the Royal Geographical Society agreed that the correct spelling was Estonia. The formal adoption took place at the government level only in 1926, with the United Kingdom and United States then adopting the spelling Estonia.
Today, Estonia (Eesti to Estonians) is known by many different names in different languages. Here are a few of them.
German / Danish / Dutch / Swedish - Estland
Finnish - Viro
French - Estonie
Croatian / Slovenian - Estonija
Hungarian - Észtország
Lithuanian - Estija
Czech - Estonsko
Latvian - Igaunija
Maltese - L-Estonja
