 By the late Roman period, several tribes known as the Saxons emerged, from which the subsequent state(s) draw their name.The first medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy", which emerged around the start of the 8th century AD and grew to include the greater part of Northern Germany, what are now the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt.The Saxons converted to Christianity during this period.