The modern Celts (/kɛlts/ KELTS, see pronunciation of Celt) are a related group of ethnicities who share similar Celtic languages, cultures, genetics, and artistic histories, and who live in or descend from one of the regions on the western extremities of Europe populated by the Celts.
A modern Celtic identity emerged in Western Europe following the identification of the native peoples of the Atlantic fringe as Celts by Edward Lhuyd in the 18th century. Lhuyd and others (notably the 17th century Breton chronologist Pezron) equated the Celts described by Greco-Roman writers with the pre-Roman peoples of France, Great Britain, and Ireland. They categorised the ancient Irish and British languages as Celtic languages. The descendants of these ancient languages are the Brittonic (Breton, Cornish, and Welsh variants) and Goidelic (Irish, Manx, and Gaelic variants) languages, and the people who speak them are considered modern Celts.