Germi County () is in the northern part of Ardabil province, Iran. The capital of the county is the city of Germi, located from Ardabil, the capital of the province. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 89,248 in 18,710 households. The following census in 2011 counted 84,267 people in 21,156 households. At the 2016 census, the county's population was 76,901 in 22,349 households. Angut District was separated from the county in December 2020 to form Ungut County. Almost all of the people of this county are Shia Muslim and speak in Azeri. According to the book: "Investigating the Social Structure of Shahsavan Tribe" the first time that Turk tribes enter into the Mugan will mark the return to the era of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi successors in the fifth century. In the seventh century, the Tatar tribes overcome the Turkmens and threw them from the area. Administrative divisions The population history of Germi County's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses is shown in the following table. The latest census shows three districts, nine rural districts, and two cities. Appellation and etymology When it comes to the etymology of "Germi", it seems somewhat cryptic. The earliest book or document which has written about this area dates back to year 22 Hijri (about 671 AD Gregorian calendar) when Arab soldiers entered the Aran or Alan region. It is believed that before the Islamic era, Alans people were living in this area. Words such as Alania, Allan-shahr, Alan-shahr, and Alan-shah had been used initially during the first century AD, for this district was located between Azerbaijan, Shirvan, The Caspian sea and Armenia. Many Alan people migrated from this area after the Islamic era and were replaced by Muslim people from different ethnic groups. After that, the area between those four borders was known as Mugan or Amukan and other pronunciation of them. Many historians believe the word "Germi" has Parthian or Alanian stems. Many others suggest that ritual words stem from religions such as Mithraism. There are two theories that believe Germi is the combination of two words: Ger and mi, but there are different interpretations. One group believes that the Sumerian stem of "Ger" means village and "Mi" means celestial. the other group believes that "Ger" comes from "Ager" in ancient Persian, which became "Akhgar" in the modern Persian language, and "mi" comes from "mehr" or "Mitra" which both means "Sun",