The official name of the island is in Catalan Eivissa (pronounced [əjˈvisə]). Its name in Spanish is Ibiza (pronounced [iˈβiθa]). In British English, the name is usually pronounced in an approximation of the Spanish /aɪˈbiːθə/, whereas in American English the pronunciation is closer to Latin American Spanish (/ɪˈbiːzə/, /iːˈbiːsə/
Phoenician colonists called the island Ibossim (from the Phoenician iboshim, meaning dedicated to the Egyptian god Bes). It was later known to Romans as Ebusus. The Greeks called the two islands of Ibiza and Formentera the Pityûssai (Greek: Πιτυοῦσσαι, “pine-covered islands”).
In the 18th and 19th centuries the island was known to the British, and especially to the Royal Navy, as Ivica.
