Terminology
The word Narentine is a demonym derived from the local Neretva river (Latin: Narenta).
Another name for the polity was the Latin Merania, meaning "coastland", and Marians to denote the inhabitants. Another term used was Krajinjane, Craynenses, Cherenania. Venetian sources refer to the people as "Narentine Slavs" (Narrentanos Sclavos). The chronicle of John the Deacon distinguishes between the Narentines and Dalmatian Croatia.
De Administrando Imperio by Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–959), says that "Pagani are descended from the unbaptized Serbs" and that "The Pagani are so called because they did not accept baptism at the time when all the Serbs were baptized."
It has been suggested that the label of "pirates" was applied by the victorious Venetians following the Battle at Cape Mika.
The region was also, considerably later, referred to as a part of Red Croatia, in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja written in 1298-1300 by a Catholic monk.
A strange republic of Servian pirates arose at the mouth of the Narenta. In the 10th century description of Dalmatia by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (De Administrando Imperio, 29-37), this region is called Pagania, from the fact that its inhabitants had only accepted Christianity about 890, or 250 years later than the other Slavs. These Pagani, or Narentani (Narentines), utterly defeated a Venetian fleet despatched against them in 887, and for more than a century exacted tribute from Venice itself. In 998 they were finally crushed by the doge Pietro Orseolo II., who assumed the title duke of Dalmatia, though without prejudice to Byzantine suzerainty. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911Read more about this topic: Pagania