Roma or Gypsy?

Two committees in the Romanian parliament in Bucharest have suggested a change to the official name of the Roma people from the latter name to Gypsy. However, the ethnic group is generally against the use of the label gypsy due to negative connotations with the term.

While official figures place the number of Roma people living in Romania at 500 000, unofficial estimates suggest a number much higher in the vicinity of 1.5 million.

It appears that the Romanian committees have decided to vote for this change in official nomenclature in an effort to distance the term Roma from the very similar word Romania or Romanian.