Was Romania’s name controversial, a bit like for North Macedonia?

by RikikiBousquet
RFive

No. The earliest references to the name Romanian was between 12-13 century.

In the Renaissance Romanians begin to be mentioned in reports by the Italian humanists traveling to Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia - the last being a name used by the Germanic people to describe celts and later all latin speakers.

Romanians weren't calling their lands Wallachia or themselves "valachi" - according to Tranquillo Andronico in 1534 who visited the lands and wrote about it "now they call themselves Romans". In 1532, Francesco della Valle accompanying Governor Aloisio Gritti to Transylvania, Walachia and Moldavia notes that Romanians preserved the name of the Romans (Romani) and "they call themselves in their language Romanians (Romei)", they also noted the similarities in languages so this wasn't a surprise for them.

The earliest preserved document written in the Romanian Language is a 1521 letter that notifies the mayor of Brasov about an imminent attack by the Turks

It was already used "Tara Romaneasca" - which means Romanian Land/State - tara from latin terra - they officialy adopted Romania in 1862 to be associated more with the civilized Europe and affirm its latin heritage after centuries of Ottoman influence, they also adopted the latin alphabet and alot of influence from Europe, mainly France - this was a process of modernization.