When the Phoenicians first ventured westwards in search of trade some 2500 years ago, they came across a land inhabited by tribes which the Greeks would later call the Iberians (after the river Iberus- the Ebro). They also saw (and no doubt roasted) some strange floppy-eared animals which appeared in great numbers everywhere. So they called the land i-shepan-im, or the land or coast of rabbits or to be more precise from the Phoenician for hyrax, the animal they knew from their North African home and confused with the rabbit. To the Romans, it became Hispania, and under Hadrian, they even struck a coin in Spain bearing the image of a rabbit.
The etymology of the name Spain (España) is uncertain. Some derive it from the Punic word tsepan, “rabbit”, basing the opinion on the evidence of a coin of Galba, on which Spain is represented with a rabbit at her feet, and on Strabo, who calls Spain “the land of rabbits”. It is said that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians found the country overrun with these rodents, and so named it after them. Another derivation is from sphan, “north”, from the circumstance that the country was north of Carthage, just as the Greeks called Italy Hesperia, because it was their western boundary, or the land of sunset (Hespera).

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