# countries named after people
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-named-after-people/65338
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 13, 2001, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-named-after-people/65338 "2001-05-13T20:52:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2001, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-named-after-people/65338/41 "2001-05-15T03:50:17Z")
I found the following on this site:
[http://www.kheta.ge/georgia/georgia.html](http://www.kheta.ge/georgia/georgia.html)
> [@](#):
>
> We should like to say a few words should be said about the name the Georgians identify themselves with. The Georgians call themselves “Kartveli”. This name goes back to the designation of the central part of East Georgia, Kartli; hence, the common term all Georgians identify themselves with: Kartveli, i.e. an inhabitant of Kartli. Later on, this common designation served as the basis for the name of the whole country: “Sakartvelo” i.e. “the land in which the Kartvelians (Georgians) live”. Hence, “Kartuli ena”, i.e. the Georgian or the Kartvelian language; accordingly, the study of Georgia and everything connected with it is called “Kartvelology”. As to the other peoples, they had their own terms for the country and its inhabitants. The Old Persians called East Georgia “vrkana”, and its population “vrk”(the etymology is vague). The Armenian term for the Georgians “vrats” is of the same origin. In the pre Persian the country is called “gurgjan”, and its inhabitants are known as “gurg”. In the Arabic-Syriac the form “djurdj”, “djurzan” is used, the Turks use “gurdji”(a Georgian) and “Gurdjistan”(Georgia). This form was the basis for the Russian terms of “Gruzia” and “gruzin”. The forms “Georgia”(Lat.), “Georgie” (Fr.), “Georgia”(Eng.) and “Georgien” (Ger.) wide- spread in European languages since the also 13th century, derive from the Turkish 'gurdji" (13th century).
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2001, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-named-after-people/65338/42 "2001-05-15T06:38:26Z")
\*All right, this is wandering into deeply obscure reaches of ancient philology, but here goes…
How do we get from Old Persian _vrk_ to Middle Persian _gurg_? Actually, the Old Persian form could also be spelled “_wrk_”, pronounced something like “work.” There was a shift from Old Persian initial _w-_ followed by _r_ to _gwr_- to _gur-_. The final -_k_ softened to _-g_.
The shift of initial _w_- to _gu_- is also seen in Frankish words in French: compare “ward” and “guard”, “warranty” and “guarantee”, “war” and “_guerre_”. Old Persian _wered_ or _wred_ ‘rose’ became New Persian _gul_. It also was loaned into Arabic as _ward_, into Hebrew as _vered_, into Homeric Greek as _brodos_, and into Attic Greek as _rhodos_, which eventually became our “rose.”
Arabic doesn’t have a /g/ sound, so it substituted j (which was historically a Semitic g anyway). This turned _gurg_ into _jurj_, which explains how we got “ **Georgia.** ”
What did the old name _vrk_ come from? Perhaps some ancient tribal name in that area of eastern Georgia. Perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root \*wlkwo- ‘wolf’ which became _ **v.rka** _ in Sanskrit, _ **varka** _ in Old Persian, and _ **gurg** _ in New Persian. Also became Greek _lykos_, Latin _lupus_, and English _wolf_. A tribal totem?
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