ETIMOLOGY OF ASTURIES. THE MEANING OF OUR NAME.

There were diverse interpretative hypothesis with regards to the name of our nation, Asturias. It is logical for there to be a clear interest in a name whose remote origins are obscured by the exiguity of dependable  and objective data. Many believe in a pre-Indo European origin, Etruscan according to Schulze and others (Shulten 426, p. 87), based on the Mediterranean expansion of toponyms and anthroponyms  that present a  linguistic resemblance with Asturias; as well as the possibility of confirming a certain familiarity with some Pyrenaic or Basque words. This is believed to be so since Humboldt and authors such as Hubschmid (59p. 471;106) admit an explanation of this, as in the compound AITZ-URA, ‘water that flows from the rocks’ ; ‘asta’ (rock, ledge), ‘ura’ (water). From this explanation we can derive that the name Asturias refers to a land with many mountain springs (cf 218; 102 p 25; …