Occitania is the southernmost administrative region of metropolitan France excluding Corsica, created on 1 January 2016 from the former regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées. The Council of State approved Occitanie as the new name of the region on 28 September 2016, coming into effect on 30 September 2016.-

The modern administrative region is named after the larger cultural and historical region of Occitania, which corresponds with the southern third of France. The region Occitanie as it is today covers a territory similar to that ruled by the Counts of Toulouse in the 12th and 13th centuries. The banner of arms of the Counts of Toulouse, known colloquially as the Occitan cross, is used by the modern region and is also a popular cultural symbol. In 2015, Occitanie had a population of 5,839,867.

Enacted in 2014, the territorial reform of French regions had been subject to debate for many years. The reform law used as the new region's provisional name the hyphenated names of its predecessors: Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées, in alphabetical order. As for most of the merged regions, a permanent name was then proposed by the new regional council to replace that provisional name. On 24 June 2016, the Regional Council of Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées adopted the name Occitanie after lengthy public consultation. The provisional name of the region was withdrawn on 30 September 2016, when the new name took effect.

Occitanie, the new name, derives from the historical appellation of the broader region, and refers to the historical use throughout that territory of the Occitan language and its various dialects, which are so named for the word òc, the Occitan word for oui or "yes". The circa 450,000 French Catalans living in the region (or Catalans of the North, as they mostly call themselves) expressed dismay at the regional assembly resolution, regarding the new name as ignoring their presence. On 10 September 2016, some 10,000 people (7,800 according to the police) demonstrated in Perpignan, demanding that the merged region name contain the words Pays catalan (literal translation: "Catalan country").

This territory was already united, in Roman times first as the Diocese of Vienne and then as the Seven Provinces (Septem Provinciae) and in Aquitaine at the beginning of the Middle Ages (Aquitanica, Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse), before the Frankish conquest. Occitania is characterized by "the Occitan culture", since the Middle Ages another expression of Romance culture in France and to a lesser extent in Italy, Spain and Monaco. It is presented and recognized on institutional sites of French communities, such as those of the Lot-et-Garonne County Council and the city of Agen.

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