Scota, in Irish mythology, Scottish mythology, and pseudohistory, is the name given to two different mythological daughters of two different Egyptian Pharaohs to whom the Gaels traced their ancestry, allegedly explaining the name Scoti, applied by the Romans to Irish raiders, and later to the Irish invaders of Argyll and Caledonia which became known as Scotland.

Edward J. Cowan has traced the first appearance of Scota in literature to the 12th century. Scota appears in the Irish Book of Leinster (containing a redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn). However a recension found in an 11th-century manuscript of the Historia Brittonum contains an earlier reference to Scota. The 12th century sources state that Scota was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh, a contemporary of Moses, who married Geytholos (Goídel Glas) and became the eponymous founders of the Scots and Gaels after being exiled from Egypt. The earliest Scottish sources claim Geytholos was "a certain king of the countries of Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, by name", while the Lebor Gabála Érenn Leinster redaction in contrast describes him as a scythian. Other manuscripts of the Lebor Gabála Érenn contain a variant legend of Scota's husband, not as Goídel Glas but instead Mil Espaine and connect him to ancient Iberia. Although these legends vary, they all agree that Scota was the eponymous founder of the Scots and that she also gave her name to Scotland.