For an ancient example, see the map of Herodotus of the fifth century BC. Why and when did the name of the region (I know it's not exactly the same region but they are adjacent to each other) and the continent effectively switch?
We need to draw distinction between Greek and Roman naming. Herodotus, as you say, exclusively uses the name Libya. In book 2 of the Histories, he argued that the Nile Delta does not divide "Asia and Libya" by this argument:
"If, then, my judgment is correct, the Ionians are mistaken in their opinions about Egypt; if, on the other hand, the Ionians are right, I am ready to prove that neither they not the rest of the Greeks know how to count: for they hold that the world consists of three parts – Asia, Europe, and Libya – whereas it is obvious that they should add a fourth, namely the Egyptian Delta, since they do not include it in either Asia or Libya. (2.16, trans. Aubrey de Selincourt, 1954)
Interestingly, this three continent notion persisted. Isidore of Seville, writing around AD 630, stated that
For this surrounding Ocean flows around in a circle at all boundaries. However, it is divided into three parts: from which one part is Asia, another Europe, and a third called Africa.
Vndique enim Oceanus circumfluens eius in circulo ambit fines. Divisus est autem trifarie: e quibus una pars Asia, altera Europa, tertia Africa nuncupatur. (Etymologiae 14)
But this isn't an apples to apples comparison by any means. When you look at contemporaries, you find that Greeks and Romans used different names for the same place for centuries.
The Romans used a term with varied etymological explanations, variously Latinate, Hebraic, or originating in a local name. The Romans associated it with the Carthaginians and the continent generally, according to Lewis & Short. The Greeks' name derives from their ethnonym for the people living on the west bank of the Nile, according to the Great Scott.
When Polybius was writing his history of the Punic Wars in the 2nd century BC, he used the term Libya exclusively to describe activities taking place on that continent. But when the Romans added Carthage's territory to their growing empire, they named it Africa Proconsolaris (not Libya). And Cornelius Scipio's honorific agnomen was "Africanus" not based in "Libya."
Furthermore, when Titus Livius described these same events in Latin one hundred years later, he described the same events using "Africa" exclusively. In the second and first century BC, we see Greeks using "Libya" for all land west of the Nile, and Romans using "Africa" to describe the same territory. Sallust used "Africa" for the continent as well, in his Jugurthine War. Throughout antiquity from Africanus down to Diocletian's designation of Diocese Africa and Justinian's reassertion of the territory as Prefectura Africa. To the Romans, the territory west of Egypt was Africa.
The Greeks persisted in using "Libya" in their language. Claudius Ptolemy (d. AD 170), the Alexandrian founder of Geography, used the Libya name as well. "First of all, therefore, let us set down Europe which we separate from Libya by the Straits of Hercules..." (Prologue to Geography). Procopius likewise used "Libya" in the Secret History (c. AD 550). So while Justinian was reestablishing the province as Africa, Procopius was describing the event using the term Libya, parallel to Polybius describing the Romans' conquest of Carthaginian Africa.
Muslim invaders adopted the Prefecture name, and it appears on maps consistently after the 7th century. I haven't been able to find references to a continental Libya after Procopius, so maybe someone can pick up from there.
Other users have fully aswered on the ancient usage of both Africa and Libya. In short, we can say that
In the Graeco-roman world, Libya could also be used in Latin, and viceversa Ἀφρική in Greek.
Note also that it is common to extend or reduce the area of a certain toponym: the Roman province of Asia comprised only western Anatolia. The same term Italia originally appied only to the southern tip of the peninsula, and so on.
The modern usage of Libya as the name of the country (that is, as a common name for the three regions of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fezzan), is apparently less than a hundred years old: The modern name was given during the Italian colonial occupation period, in 1934. Under Ottoman rule the area was known as Tripolitania, or Kingdom of Tripoli and was an Elayet-Vilayet in the Ottoman administration.
In 1912 the Kingdom of Italy defeated the Ottoman empire, and occupied its remaining African territories (and the Aegean Islands of Dodecanese); the 1912 Treaty of Lausanne (or Treaty of Ouchy) mentions these territories as "Tripoli and Cyrenaica". The Italian government organized in fact two colonies, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. Right after the conquest the inhabitants of the new colonies started guerrilla resistance against the colonial power, which effectively controlled only the main cities. From 1913 to 1932 Italy struggled both to consolidate its grasp on Tripolitania and Libya, and to conquer the Fezzan. After many 'reconquest wars', Fascist Italy reunited the North African Colonies into a unified colony, Libya (here the text of the decree).
Why that name was chosen then? My first guess would be that Italian and then Fascist used the classical heritage for propaganda: the UK was the perfida Albione and so on.
The name would then be a neoclassicist revival of the ancient, hellenistic toponym for Africa. Italy had already done the same with Eritrea: previously called Medri Bahri, the Italians in 1890 named their first colony "the land of the red sea" using the Greek root for "red", erythros. When in 1934 Fascist Italy with its smack for highfaluting language unified the two African colonies, it brought back the ancient name.
However, I have found Libya used for the complex of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania before 1934. The 1923 treaty of Lausanne, however, which would confirm the Italian claims on Libya and the Dodecanese, already mentions "Libya".
It seems, then, that there is a 1934 official naming of the land as Libya, but that already after WWI the Italian colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were known collectively as Libya.
I am trying to find the first usage of the term; so far I found some maps:
I searched for the occurrences of Libia, Cirenaica and Tripolitania in that period: the occurrences of Libya skyrocket after 1934, but they briefly overcome those of Tripolitania already in 1914.
Furthermore, here is a series of British correspondence about the war of 1911-12, where the Ottoman possessions in Africa are already called collectively Libya.
A quick skimming through the publication of that period shows that Libya is used mainly for the Libyan desert, but also for the newly acquired Italian possessions.
If we go back to the 19th century, however, Libya is used mainly as a classical toponym: a good example is given by the different edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
My conclusions so far:
The Italian interests in Libya, which date back to the beginning of the 20th century, helped popularize the modern usage of this classical toponym.
Hi, everybody! So, you've probably clicked on this thread because it has so many upvotes and you assume that means there's an answer - but that's not how /r/AskHistorians works. In general, people upvote threads here because they want an answer. The thing is, it can often take time for a good answer to be written. Our mission is to provide users with in-depth and comprehensive responses, and our rules are intended to facilitate that purpose. That's why we remove comments that are very short, based on speculation, or just plain inaccurate. Making comments asking about the removed comments simply makes the problem worse. So please, before you try your hand at posting, check out the rules: we don't want to have to give you a temporary ban for ignoring them.
While you wait, you can check out places our already-answered questions are featured, including Twitter, the Sunday Digest, the Monthly "Best Of" feature, and now, Facebook. Statistically speaking, it's very likely that the question will be answered in a few hours, so please check back in later. If you think you might forget, send a Private Message to the Remind-Me bot, and it will ensure you don't!
Finally, while we always appreciate feedback, we ask that any comments about our moderation style and rules be sent to modmail, or a META thread. Please be aware that we've considered and discarded the idea of an "answered" flair and an automatic "free talk" comment thread many times already. Thank you!
