Eli5 Why is Georgia the country called Georgia instead of its own name saqartvelo? If we call it saqartvelo we shouldn’t be confused with Georgia the state right?

Question

Eli5 Why is Georgia the country called Georgia instead of its own name saqartvelo? If we call it saqartvelo we shouldn’t be confused with Georgia the state right?

In: Other

Answer 1

We don’t use a lot of autononyms(what people in the place call the place) for countries who speak other languages. [Here is why we call it Georgia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)#Etymology) We tend to still call things what ancient Europeans called them because English is old, and those places are older.