indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Type Body of Water
Usage English
Meaning & History
Meaning uncertain. Possibly derived from Latin balteus "belt". The Baltic Sea is a sea in Northern Europe. The name was first used, as Mare Balticum, by Adam of Bremen in the 11th century. Before that, Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after a Germanic tribe called Suebi, and Ptolemy called it Sarmatian Ocean after the Sarmatians.