"Celt" Conjecture

[Rumo]

[post edited by moderator]

Also, it's quite unfair to dismiss this evidence 'because it's from the Roman period'. I imagine that you can tell us a good number of names from the pre-Roman period (that is, taken from other sources than Roman)?

Why? It is claimed here that Celts called themselves that way before Romans preconceptions shaped Celt-ness as an umbrella term for them, and moreover that Celt was an authentic and meaningful name for them (and so we got to Celtillus and the other "Celts"). If indeed this is the case, then we need pre-Roman evidence, don't we?
We do have pre-Roman inscriptions in both Iberia and Gaul in what we call Celtic languages (though I've read some recent suggestions - based on evidence such as the Botorrita plaques - that Celtiberian could be a non-Celtic IE language or a more divergent Celtic language, an early split from a proto-Celtic dialectal continuum)

Are you really suggesting thaat these names are Roman and unconnected to a Celtic linguistic group? I find that extremely difficult to believe.

Some may contain Celtic names and words re-used in Latin, but names like Celtillus or Celticus look Roman enough to me.

However we have no reason to believe that only Celtic speakers had "Celtic" names.