It is the capital city of the county with the same name, Moldova, Romania. Iasi was the capital of Moldavia between 1564-1859, one of the two capitals of the United Principalities between 1859 and 1862 and the capital of the Kingdom of Romania between 1916-1918. At the 2011 census, Iasi had a population of 290,422 and was the fourth largest city in Romania. The Iasi Metropolitan Area, which includes 13 neighboring localities, had an estimated population at the beginning of 2016 at 472,733 inhabitants. It has an area of 9,391 ha. The most richly documented explanation is that the city's name originates in the early Middle Ages, from the Alanic people of the Yiddish, but the Protoconist historians have another theory about the origin of the Iasi name. They say that the name comes from a much older sarman tribe: the antiquity Iaces mentioned by Ovidiu as Ipse vides onerata ferox ut ducata Iasyx / Per media Istri plaustra bubulcus aquas and Jazyges et colchi Metereaque peat Getaque / Danubii mediis vix prohibentur aquis.