Bassas da India is an uninhabited, roughly circular atoll located in the southern Mozambique Channel, about halfway between Mozambique and Madagascar and around 110 km (68 mi) northwest of Europa Island. It is administered by France as part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, though it is claimed by Madagascar. The rim of the atoll averages around 100 metres (330 ft) in width and encloses a shallow lagoon of depth no greater than 15 m (49 ft). Overall, the atoll is about 10 km (6.2 mi) in diameter, rising steeply from the seabed 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) below to encircle an area of 80 km2 (31 sq mi). Its exclusive economic zone, 123,700 km2 (47,800 sq mi) in size, is contiguous with that of Europa Island.

Fernão de Loronha, whose name is often corrupted to Fernando de Noronha or Fernando della Rogna, was a prominent 16th-century Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, of Jewish descent. He was the first charter-holder (1502–1512), the first donatary captain in Brazil and sponsor of numerous early Portuguese overseas expeditions. The islands of Fernando de Noronha off the coast of Brazil, discovered by one of his expeditions and granted to Loronha and his heirs as a fief in 1504, are named after him.