The name Ossetians and Ossetia comes from the Georgian term Oseti (ოსეთი), which means ‘the land of the Osi’.
In Georgian, Osi (ოსი, pl. Osebi, ოსები) has been used since the Middle Ages to refer to the Alans- only one Iranian-speaking group in the Central Caucasus.
Ossetians inhabit both sides of the Main Caucasian Ridge, being descendants of the Iranian-speaking Alans.
This is supported, for example, by the Ossetian name of “Iron” (the territory around the city of Vladikavkaz).
Some scholars believe that it may be derived from the Iranian arya or aryāna, meaning “noble”.
During the Migration Period (300 – 600 AD), the Alans suffered greatly from the Hunnic invasion and were forced to migrate to the inaccessible regions of the Caucasus Mountains.
This is how three Ossetian regions emerged: Digoria in the west (now in Russia), and Tuallag, located in what is now Georgia. By the VIII century, the Alans have formed their own medieval kingdom in the Northern Caucasus.
In the XIII century, following the Mongol invasion, a group of Alans emigrated from the Caucasus to Hungary.
Known as the Jasz, this subgroup became assimilated into the local population by the XVI century, when it adopted the Hungarian language.