Georgia 🇬🇪 The multiple names of the country.

The country of Georgia is a fascinating case of polyonymy, meaning it is known by completely different names depending on which area of the world. 

Locally it is called Sakartvelo (საქართველო)

Meaning: "The place where the Kartvelians live". The word is derived from the core region of Kartli (central Georgia). According to medieval Georgian chronicles, this name traces back to Kartlos, the mythic pagan ancestor and unifier of the Georgian people.

Internationally by the West, it is called Georgia.

Meaning: "Land of the Wolves" or culturally linked to "St. George", the English name comes from the Old Persian designation for the region, Gorgān or Gurğ, which translates to "land of the wolves". When Western European Crusaders and pilgrims traveled during the Middle Ages, they started using this name.

The St George Link: Because Gurğ sounded phonetically similar to the Greek name Georgios (George), and because the local populations fiercely venerated St George (featuring his cross on their battle flags), the Crusaders erroneously mixed the two cementing the name "Georgia" in European languages.

Internationally (Slavic) it was called Gruzia (Грузия)

Meaning: Also from the Persian source, it is used widely across Slavic, Baltic, and East Asian languages due to historical Russian influence. It evolved from the same Persian/Arabic root (Gurj/Gurjistan) through a series of consonant and vowel shifts as they traveled north over the Caucasus mountains. In recent decades, the Georgian government has successfully campaigned to have allies drop the Russian-derived "Gruzia" in favor of "Georgia" or "Sakartvelo". Lithuania has officially adopted the name Sakartvelas for all official communications.

Regionally & Historically: Vrastan and IberiaVrastan (Armenian): Neighbors in Armenia have historically referred to Georgia as Vrastan. This stems from the ancient root Vir or Virk, which was the old Armenian designation for the Iberian kingdom of the Caucasus.

Caucasian Iberia (Greco-Roman): Ancient Greeks and Romans referred to the eastern Georgian Kingdom as Iberia. This is entirely a geographic coincidence and is completely unrelated to the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal.