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How was the name Palestine connected to the Philistines in ancient sources?

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Panoramic view of a small valley with a stream, olive trees, and terraced hillsides in the countryside near Ramallah, Palestine, under a sky with scattered clouds. — Palestine View from a small valley with a stream between large hills of olive groves.

The name Palestine is etymologically linked to the Philistines, a people of Aegean origin who settled on the southern coast of the region in the 12th century BCE.12

In the Hebrew Bible, this coastal area was referred to as Peleshet, or the Land of the Philistines, which encompassed a confederacy of five cities known as the Pentapolis. Ancient Egyptian inscriptions from the temple of Ramses III identify these people as prst, one of the Sea Peoples who invaded the region. Similarly, Assyrian records refer to the area as Palastu.12

The transition from the specific regional designation of "Philistia" to the broader name "Palestine" occurred as the term was adopted by the Greeks. By the 2nd century CE, the Romans formalized this usage with the administrative term Syria Palaestina, which designated the southern portion of the province of Syria.21