Savoy etimology

 The name Savoy has its roots in the Late Latin Sapaudia, which referred to a fir or upland forest. The word is likely ultimately from Gaulish – sapin itself is a blend of Gaulish sappos (fir tree) and Latin pinus (pine tree) . Savoy is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps, shared between the modern countries of France, Italy, and Switzerland. It was occupied by the Allobroges, a Gaulish people that the Roman Republic subdued in 121 BC. During the Middle Ages, the region was built up into a considerable state with Savoy as its base and extending east across the Alps into Piedmont[4]. In the early modern period, Savoy became an object of French expansion because of its strategic position commanding the roads into Italy. It was occupied a number of times by French troops in the 16th and 17th centuries, but the dukes of Savoy were able to recover it. Savoy (along with Nice) became part of France permanently in 1860 as the price for the French emperor Napoleon III’s consent to the formation of a state covering north-central Italy under the rule of the house of Savoy. 

It is worth noting that "Savoy" can also refer to a cultivated variety of cabbage, Brassica oleracea capitata, having a compact head and wrinkled leaves.