Who coined the word "India"?

The word "India" has been in use since at least 1700 B.C.E. and cannot be readily attributed to any one person. The first recorded use of the term was by the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.E., when his "The Histories" refers to the area as India.

Most scholars agree that the word "India," in Koine Greek, refers to the Indus River that flows through the region. Thus, India was the "land of the Indus River."

A self-ascribed name for the country and region is Bharata, a Sanskrit word that comes from the lengthened word form of a king described in an ancient Indian text.