Very little remains of the Phoenician language, but numismatic inscriptions record that they knew the site as a Gadir or Agadir (), meaning "The Wall", "The Compound", or (by metonymy) "The Stronghold" [REF].
In Latin, the city was known as Gādēs and its Roman colony as Augusta Urbs Iulia Gaditana ("The August City of Julia of Cádiz").