The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, the first King of Scots (Middle Scots: King of Scottis, Modern Scots: Keeng o Scots Scottish Gaelic: Rìghrean Albannaich) was Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín), who founded the state in 843. The distinction between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of the Picts is rather the product of later medieval myth and confusion from a change in nomenclature i.e. Rex Pictorum (King of the Picts) becomes Rí Alban (King of Alba) under Donald II when annals switched from Latin to vernacular around the end of the 9th century, by which time the word Alba in Gaelic had come to refer to the Kingdom of the Picts rather than Britain (its older meaning).