'bagaudae' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'Bagaudae', possibly borrowed from a Gaulish or other Celtic form related to a root meaning 'crowd' or 'fighters'.

'bagaudae' was used in late Latin sources to name rural insurgent groups; it likely reflects a borrowing or continuity from local Celtic (Gaulish) terms and was preserved in medieval Latin histories as 'Bagaudae' when modern historians adopted the term.

Initially it referred to particular groups of rural rebels in late antiquity; over time it became a historiographical term for similar peasant insurgencies rather than a living ethnic or social name.