Estonia (Estland in German and several other Germanic languages; archaic English spelling: Esthonia), officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti or Eesti Vabariik), is a country in Northern Europe. Estonia has land borders to the south with Latvia and to the east with Russia. It is separated from Finland in the north by the Gulf of Finland and from Sweden in the west by the Baltic Sea.
Estonia has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004 and of NATO since 29 March 2004.
The Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns. The Estonian language is a Finno-Ugric language and, along with its close relative Finnish as well as Hungarian, is one of the few official languages of the European Union that is not of Indo-European origin.
The modern name of Estonia is thought to originate from the Roman historian Tacitus, who in his book Germania (ca. 98 AD) described a people called the Aestii. Similarly, ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland. Early Latin and other ancient sources of the country's name are Estia and Hestia.