Abstract: | This study presents quotations from the writings of Herodotus, Vitravius, Pomponius Me la, Plyni the Elder, Claudius Ptolemy, Agathemerus, Dio, Martianus Capella, with regard to the River Niger. The name of 'Nigeria' appeared in print for the first time on 8 January 1897 in an article in the Times by Miss Flora Shaw, who later became the wife of Lord Lugard. In the author's opinion 'Nigeira', the word used on Ptolemy, would be a more correct term, etymologically, than the comparatively recent 'Nigeria' with its false, and to many Africans, offensive association with the Latin adjective Niger - Black. |