from Latin Italia, from Greek Italia, perhaps from an alteration of Oscan Viteliu "Italy," but originally only the southwestern point of the peninsula, traditionally from Vitali, name of a tribe that settled in Calabria, whose name is perhaps somehow connected with Latin vitulus "calf," or perhaps the country name is directly from vitulus as "land of cattle," or it might be from an Illyrian word, or an ancient or legendary ruler Italus.