In the ancient times, the name of Italy did not extend to all the peninsula.

The first time that this name "Italia” appears to us in history refers itself, not to the entire peninsula, but only to the extreme part of the actual Calabria, from the Strait of Messina to the gulfs of Sant'Eufemia and Squillace.
From where this name Italia came from and what it meant, is not known.

One historical Greek of the V century B.C., Antioco of Siracusa, remembers a legendary Italo, king of the extreme Calabrian peninsula, which, from its name, then would have been called "Italia".
Other ancient historians instead, founding their theories on the affinity between the name Italia and the ancient word viteliu of the osco dialect (where the Latin vitulus = year-old calf), see in the name Italia a vague memory of the calves, of which the region once would have been a rich of.

However since the V century B.C. Italia was the name of the more southern part of the actual Calabria. Then it was extended to the northern Calabria, then to the rivers of the Gulf of Taranto, therefore to those of Campania, until, on the ending of the IV the century to B.C., between Greek people it became a common habit to call Italici all the inhabitants of the Magna Greece.

The Roman, conquering the southern Italy, adopted their name Italia and they extended it to all the center regions of the peninsula, from they conquered. And when they arrived in the padana valley (center north), they also considered it italic territory, until, under the emperor Augusto, all our territory, from the Alps to the sea, was called Italia.

In this way the names of Ausonia and of Enòtria were lost. These names probably derive from people who inhabited some parts of the peninsula.

On the other hand, a poetic memory of the Espèria name remained this name meaning "Land of the Occident" (from the Espera Greek = evening), with which the Greeks sometimes called our Country, behind which they saw the italian peninsula.