The paper deals with the Old Turkic and other forms of the ethnonym Qïtan. In some recent works the ethnonym of the Khitans occurring in the Khitan Small Script is transcribed as qid.un. The author claims that in Khitan there was a tripartite opposition for nouns denoting living things: singular, collective unit, and plural. The ethnonym accordingly had three forms, qïta, qïtan and qïtas. The plural in -s is different from the Middle Mongolian form qïtad, but is in accordance with other Khitan plurals in -s.