Editing Alba Iulia (section)

== Names ==
During the [[Roman Dacia|Roman period]] the settlement was called [[Apulum (conurbation)|Apulum]] (from the Dacian ''Apoulon'', mentioned by [[Ptolemy]]).<ref name=JVL>{{cite news|url = http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0001_0_00666.html|title=ALBA IULIA|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=26 December 2012}}</ref><ref name=Bakker>{{cite web
|author= Jarig Bakker
|title= Alba Iulia (Romania, Alba)
|publisher=CRW Flags
|access-date=2013-10-18
|date=2001-02-10
|url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ro-albai.html}}</ref><ref name=Fermor/> When the settlement with its Roman ruins became the seat of a dukedom in the 10th century, the population may have been [[Slavs|Slavic]].<ref>Makkai 2001, p. 365</ref> From the 9th to the 11th centuries, the settlement bore the Slavic name ''Bălgrad'' (meaning "white castle" or "white town").<ref name=britannica/><ref name=Fermor/><ref name=Room>Adrian Room, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=M1JIPAN-eJ4C Placenames of the World: Origins And Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features and Historic Sites]'', McFarland, 2006, p. 23</ref> The old Romanian name of the town was ''Bălgrad'',<ref name= "Istrate">{{Citation |title=Christianization in Early Medieval Transylvania: A Church Discovered in Alba Iulia and its Interpretations |date=2022-06-20 |work=Christianization in Early Medieval Transylvania |url=https://brill.com/display/title/62325 |page= 11|access-date=2024-03-13 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-51586-4}}</ref> which originated from [[Slavic languages|Slavic]].

The earliest name attested are Castrum Albense and Alba Transilvana, in 1206, and Alba Jula in 1291.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chivu |first=Gheorghe |title=Place names in old Romanian texts. Between cultural model and administrative constraints |url=https://www.academia.edu/100540929/Place_names_in_old_Romanian_texts_Between_cultural_model_and_administrative_constraints |journal=Proceedings of the International Conference on Onomastics ”Name and Naming”.}}</ref> The [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] name ''Gyulafehérvár'' is a translation of the earlier Slavic form,<ref name=Room/> meaning "white castle of the Gyula"<ref>Iván Boldizsár, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mS0nAQAAIAAJ&q=white+castle++gyula NHQ; the New Hungarian Quarterly, Volume 29; Volumes 109-110], Lapkiadó Publishing House, 1988, p. 73</ref> meaning "white city of Julius".<ref name=Room/> ''Alba'' is the Romanian feminine form of the word for ''white'', and ''Iulia'' ("Julius") refers to [[Gyula II]], a mid-10th-century Hungarian warlord who was [[baptized]] in [[Constantinople]].<ref name=Fermor>Patrick Leigh Fermor, Between the woods and the water: on foot to Constantipole from the Hook of Holland : the middle Danube to the Iron Gates, Viking, 1986, p. 138, {{ISBN|9780670811496}}, Citations: "The Dacian Apulon became the Latin Apulum, and the place was full of traces of the old Roman colony. But both of these words were silenced when the hushed and muffling spread of the Slavs stifled the old names of Eastern Europe forever. They renamed it ''Bălgrad'' - the white town (one of many) - perhaps because of its pale walls and this white motif caught on. The Saxons called it Weissenburg and later Karlsburg, in honour of Emperor Charles VI, who built the great eighteenth-century fortress here. The Hungarians had already adopted the notion of whiteness, but another crept in too: the word 'Julius', after a mid-tenth-century (Hungarian?) prince who had visited Constantinople and been baptised there. In Hungarian, Gyulafehérvár, means "white city of Gyula". The Rumanians stuck to Bălgrad, then adopted the medieval Latin name of Alba Iulia."</ref><ref name=Room/>

Under the influence of the Hungarian form, Gyulafehérvár, the town's Latin name eventually became ''Alba Julia'' or ''Alba Yulia''.<ref name="Bakker" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kiss |first=Lajos |title=Földrajzi nevek etimológiai szótára |publisher=[[Akadémiai Kiadó]] |year=1980 |isbn=963-05-2277-2 |location=[[Budapest]] |page=256}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dCFNHOqCAisC&dq=%22Alba+Yulia%22&pg=PA196 Medieval and Early Modern for Central and Eastern Europe] Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Press, p. 196</ref> Its modern Romanian name, ''Alba Iulia'', is the adoption of this<ref name="Fermor" /><ref name=":0" /> that started to spread in Romanian in ordinary speech in the 18th century.<ref>László Bányai, [https://books.google.com/books?id=d54MAQAAMAAJ&q=K%C3%B6z%C3%B6s+sors--testv%C3%A9ri+hagyom%C3%A1nyok%3A+t%C3%B6rt%C3%A9nelmi+v%C3%A1zlat Közös sors--testvéri hagyományok: történelmi vázlat], Politikai Könyvkiadó, 1973, p. 41, Citations: "A középkori latin okiratok Alba Iulia-ja csak a XVIII. századtól terjed el a román köznyelvben" Translation: " the term 'Alba Iulia', used in medieval Latin charters, started to spread in the Romanian vulgar tongue only in the 18th century"</ref> The modern name has been officially used since the town became part of Romania.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=tYNmAAAAMAAJ&q=Alba+Iulia+forditas Magyar történeti tanulmányok, Volumes 19-21, Acta Universitatis Debreceniensis de Ludovico Kossuth nominatae: Series historica], KLTE, 1986, p. 85 Citations: "Itt említjük meg, hogy Gyulafehérvárat akkoriban románul Belgrad-nak hívták, csak Romániához történt csatolása után lett belôle Alba Iulia." Translation: "We mention it here that Gyulafehérvár was called Belgrad in Romanian and it turned to Alba Iulia after it became part of Romania."</ref>

The 16th-century [[German language|German]] name was ''Weyssenburg''.<ref name="Fermor" /> The Saxons later renamed the town to ''Karlsburg'' (Carlsburg)<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lou-7qh98T4C&pg=PA137 ''Berichte und Forschungen. Jahrbuch des Bundesinstituts für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im Östlichen Europa 11/2003''], p.137</ref> in honour of [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI]] (1685–1740).<ref name="Fermor" /><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SB8WAQAAMAAJ&q=karlsburg+Charles+VI The Transylvanian Saxons: historical highlights], Alliance of Transylvanian Saxons, 1982, p. 55, {{ISBN|9783853730706}}</ref> In [[Yiddish]] and [[Hebrew]], ''Karlsburg'' was prevalent. In [[Ladino language|Ladino]], ''Carlosburg'' was used.<ref name="JVL" /> ''Alba Carolina'' was also a Medieval Latin form of its name.<ref name="JVL" />

Among [[Ruthenians]], the city was known as ''Bilhorod'' ("white city").<ref name=lb181216/>

The city's [[Latin]] name in the 10th century was ''Civitas Alba in Ereel''.<ref name="Léstyán">Ferenc Léstyán, [http://vmek.oszk.hu/04600/04684/html/835.html MEGSZENTELT KÖVEK A KÖZÉPKORI ERDÉLYI PÜSPÖKSÉG TEMPLOMAI], Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Alba Iulia, 2000, {{ISBN|973-9203-56-6}}</ref>{{clarify|date=October 2013}} The first part of the name ''Alba'' denotes the ruins of the Roman fort ''Apulum'', the pre-feudal white citadel.<ref name=Room/><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GownAQAAMAAJ&q=Apulum+%22the+white+citadel%22 Romania in brief], Meridiane Pub. House, 1966, p. 74</ref> Later in the Middle Ages, different names were used: ''Frank episcopus Belleggradienesis'' in 1071, ''Albae Civitatis'' in 1134, ''Belegrada'' in 1153, ''Albensis Ultrasilvanus'' in 1177, ''eccl. Micahelis'' in 1199, ''Albe Transilvane'' in 1200, ''Albe Transsilvane'' in 1201, ''castrum Albens'' in 1206, ''canonicis Albensibus'' in 1213, ''Albensis eccl. Transsylvane'' in 1219, ''B. Michaelis arch. Transsilv.'' in 1231, ''Alba... Civitas'' in 1242, ''Alba sedes eptus'' in 1245, ''Alba Jula'' in 1291, ''Feyrvar'' in 1572, ''Feyérvár'' in 1574, ''Weissenburg'' in 1576, Belugrad in 1579, ''Gyula Feyervár'' in 1619, ''Gyula Fehérvár'' in 1690 and ''Karlsburg'' in 1715.<ref name="Léstyán"/>