By the end of the tenth century, the Picts and the Dalriadan Scotti (Irish in origin), per se, seem almost to have ceased to exist; in reality, the change was more semantic than political. The Gaelic name for Scotland was Alba and that was the name Kenneth mac Alpin, first recognized king of the area that came to known as Scotland,gave his kingdom. In the tenth century, when Irish annalists starting writing in their own language, that was the name they also used. In the twelfth century, native Scottish writers began referring to their country as Scotia (Latin for Scotland). Whatever its name, the kingdom ruled by the successors of Kenneth was still the Kingdom of the Picts and Dalriadan Scots, and its Kings traced their line back to Kenneth mac Alpin and the 69 Pictish Kings. The kingdom of the Picts never vanished at all: nowadays, it's simply called Scotland. (With thanks to The Age of the Picts)