Tigray Province
The oldest inscriptions and texts referring to the population of the Aksumite kingdom and its neighbors do not know the term Tigray yet; they show an ethnic diversity, which has partially disappeared today. A variant of the term Tigray, first appears in a 10th-century gloss to "Cosmas Indicopleustes", i.e. after the Aksumite period; according to this source important groups of the region were the "" and the "" (i.e. the Agʿazi), the latter being the Aksumites. The toponym Tigray is probably originally ethnic, the "" then meant "the tribes near Adulis". They correspond to the Tigre groups living in the same area today; however, a historical identity between today's sub-groups and the 10th century groups cannot be supposed, as this could not explain the existence of the toponym "Tigray" for the Aksum-Adwa area. It should be concluded that Tigray groups lived along the main route between Aksum and the coast, and later separated, both ethnically and linguistically. There is no indication that the term Tigray could be explained through Ge'ez ("subdue"), with the meaning "the submitted" (in supposed contrast to the "free" Agaziyan linked with the rulers of Aksum), as this could not explain why the most important province took the name Tigray. The term might even not be Ethiosemetic and predate the Sabaen presence in Ethiopia. It is not excluded that the term ("Tekaru") from a list of southern peoples and countries allegedly subdued by Pharaonic Egypt in the 15th century BC may already be linked with the term Tigray; in this case it should mean a region within or in the vicinity of Punt.
Tigray Province
Hawzen was an important province seemingly already in Aksumite times (with important early rock-hewn churches); according to the , in the 13th century Hawzen encompassed wide areas from today's Hawzen to the Afar salt plains in the east. Consequently, over the centuries the realm of Tigray regularly extended over all these territories. Tembien was included into Tigray already in the 17th century, and at times also well before. An ancient permanent boundary of Tigray proper to the south is the Tekeze, in ancient sources equalled with the Nile River. Therefore, Tigray proper together with its dependencies was occasionally also called ("beyond the Tekezze"). Over a long period, the capital of Tigray proper was Hawzen in the sub-province Haramat. Already in the 17th century this town served as a seat of governors. In the 19th century it again served as the capital, e.g. of Wube Haile Mariam and "negus" Negusse. Adwa assumed the role of a capital in the 18th century under Amde Haymanot, and again later (starting from the 1880s in competition with the new capital Mekelle).