Today we use the term "Anglo-Saxon" for any of the Germanic peoples who colonised Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. While the term is not exactly of recent vintage, it is important to realise that the Germanic tribes that colonised Britain did not call themselves "Anglo-Saxons." The word "Anglo-Saxon" originated in Continental Latin sources to distinguish the Saxons who settled in Britain from the Saxons who remained on the Continent (who were termed the "Old Saxons). The word was eventually used by the peoples we today call Anglo-Saxons. King Alfred the Great used the title "rex Anglorum Saxonum" or rex "Angul-Saxonum"--literally King of the Anglo-Saxons. The term does not appear to have been popular in Old English. In the late Anglo-Saxon period, it seems that the peoples we call Anglo-Saxons preferred to call themselves "Englisc (our modern word "English")."

The term "Anglo-Saxon" fell out of use around the time of the Norman Conquest and was later revived in the 16th century. Since that time it has been used to refer to the Germanic peoples who colonised Britain prior to the Norman Conquest.