The names Phoenicia and Phoenician come from the Greek phoinikē and phoinikias, respectively. These terms were used by the Greeks to designate the coastal strip on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and its hinterland, and the Semitic-speaking inhabitants of that territory. The terms may correspond etymologically to the biblical (kenaʿan) and cuneiform (kinahhu) names for Canaan; both the Greek and Semitic names may derive from words that refer to a reddish-purple dye for which the Phoenician dyeing industry was renowned. But there is not a precise correspondence in usage between Phoenicia and Canaan. There is, moreover, no clear evidence for what the people in question called themselves; affiliation by individual city was more likely than any pervasive national consciousness.

There is no reason to doubt the ancient claim that the Phoenicians were autochthonous, but before the late second millennium BCE...