being a pejorative term. Some historians also consider "barbarian kingdoms" to be a misnomer since the kingdoms were supported and to a large degree staffed by former Roman elites. Alternate terms that have been proposed and used by some historians include "post-Roman kingdoms", "Roman-barbarian kingdoms", "Latin-Germanic kingdoms", "Latin-barbarian kingdoms", "western kingdoms", and "early medieval kingdoms".

"Barbarian kingdom" was not a contemporary term and was not used by the populace of the kingdoms to designate their own states.