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The term Berber is but a variation of the Latin original word Barbarian, earlier in history applied by Romans specifically to their Northern hostile neighbors from Germanica (modern Germany). The variation is a French one when spelled Berbere and English when spelled Berber. The term appeared 1st in the 4th century in a religious conflicts between Saint Augustine, a Numedian-Roman Bishop of the Catholic, and the Donatists allies of the Barbarians, also known as Vandals. The Vandals migrated from Iberia (modern Spain) where they were assailed by the Gauls allied to the Romans, and settled west of the Roman city of Carthage (in Modern Tunisia) in the highlands (in Modern Algeria).

Historically, it is not clear how the name "Berber" evolved supposedly from the word βάρβαρος. Contrary to some sources, the Berber/Imazighen were not called barbarians by the Greeks or Romans. The Berbers were known as Libyans to the ancient Greeks, and they were known under many names, for instance, Numidians and Moors, to the Romans.

Because the Berbers were called El-Barbar by the Arabs, it is very probable that the modern European languages and the other ones adopted it from the Arabic language. The Arabs did not use the name El-Barbar as a negative name, because the ancient Arab historians were not aware of the origin of that name; so, they created some myths or stories about the name. The most notorious myth considers an eponymous Barbar as the ancestor of the Berbers. According to that myth, "the Berbers were the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, the son of Barbar, the son of Tamalla, the son of Mazigh, the son of Canon" (Ibn Khaldun, The History of Ibn Khaldun, Chapter 3).

The fact that the name Berber is a strange name to the Berbers led to confusion. Some sources claimed that the Berbers are several ethnic groups who are not related to each other. That is not accurate, because the Berbers refer to themselves as Imazighen in Morocco, as well as Libya, Egypt (Siwa) and other parts in North Africa.

Not only the origin of the name Berber is unclear, but also the name Amazigh. The most common explanation is that the name goes back to the Egyptian period when the Ancient Egyptians mentioned an ancient Libyan tribe called Meshwesh. Those Meshwesh are supposed by some scholars to be the same ancient Libyan tribe that was mentioned as Maxyans by the Greek historian Herodotus.

Main article: Ancient Libya

In the Greek period the Berbers were mainly known as Libyans and their lands as Libya that extended from modern Morocco to the western borders of ancient Egypt. (Modern Egypt contains the Siwa Oasis, historically part of Libya, where the Berber Siwi language is still spoken.)

• Berber people
• Berber language