Carrom is a game of skill and strategy invented in India over two centuries ago. Ancestors of this game have existed for millennia, but it did not yet bear this name. The name "carrom" probably comes from the island of Timor in Southeast Asia and was brought to India by the Portuguese. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Western world gradually became familiar with this word through French billiards, also called "carambole billiards" or "carrom billiards" in English.