Alternate Names of Georgia (the country)

oshron

oshron

hey, all. for my ASB ATL, i decided to change the official name of Georgia the South Caucasian country due to butterflies (and partly because i changed the namesake of the US state of Georgia to being Saint George rather than a King George because of previous changes to the TL; IOTL, it was Georgia the country that was named after the dragon-slaying saint). i thought i'd run my ideas for this by my fellow AH.commers and get some peer review.

the first possibility is that Georgia is known internationally as Sakartvelo, which is the OTL Georgian name for Georgia. the demonym for Georgians in this case would probably be Sakartvelian or something.

the second possibility is that Georgia's name is one of those "merger" names, which i've already got a few examples of ITTL (namely Austria-Hungary and Poland-Lithuania). in this case, the name would be Kolkheti-Kartli or Kartli-Kolkheti, from the Georgian names for two ancient kingdoms in the area, Colchis and Iberia. the common English name for *Georgia in this case would probably just be Colchis since there's a better-known region named Iberia (where Spain and Portugal are located) as well as some name recognition via Jason and the Argonauts.


thoughts and suggestions? personally, i'm kinda leaning towards the latter.
 
Oracle of Sobek 𓆋

Oracle of Sobek 𓆋

You could take the Persian/Arabic name for Georgia and call it "Gruzistan", or take a cue from the Russians and call it "Gruzia"/"Gruzinia", or something to that effect.
 
Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf

Donor
The post-Georgian states all had names of their own which could have come to be the reunified name

I can't remember enough, but Kartli and one beginning with I were there, and I think one began with G

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 

Halagaz

Gruzia...Colchis or Iberia are also viable suggestion. Or Kartvelia. Or a name derived from one of Georgia's less prominent parts, such as Imereti or Lazika.
 
Beedok

Beedok

Iberia all the way. If they can't make people think it's happening in the US then make them think it's happening in Spain or Portugal.
 

Falecius

I read a suggestion that "Iberia" is cognate with "Imereti".
However, with a relatively late POD (after 1000 AD) I guess that Lazika and (archaizing) Colchis are the more plausible options.
I never heard of "Kartli-Kolkheti". I am aware of "Kartli-KAkheti", where Kakheti is utterly unrelated with Colchis and indeed should represent the easternmost part of the Kartvelian area.
 

profxyz

Tiflis (from Tblisi), Kartli, Chaldia (from Ottoman Georgia, or Cildir), Megrelia, Georgistan (if Islamified).

Who knows, since Georgia and Trebizond were close for large sections of their history maybe some cartographer messes it up and calls Georgia 'Trebizond' instead.

Alternatively, since the etymology of Georgia probably comes from the First Crusade, the Crusaders could have gotten the name from Byzantine sources... and so you'd have the country of Tao (or Iberia).

Or the Crusaders hear the Arabic jurjia and confuse it with St. John, so you'd have Jonia or something.
 

Wendell

profxyz said:
Tiflis (from Tblisi), Kartli, Chaldia (from Ottoman Georgia, or Cildir), Megrelia, Georgistan (if Islamified).

Who knows, since Georgia and Trebizond were close for large sections of their history maybe some cartographer messes it up and calls Georgia 'Trebizond' instead.

Alternatively, since the etymology of Georgia probably comes from the First Crusade, the Crusaders could have gotten the name from Byzantine sources... and so you'd have the country of Tao (or Iberia).

Or the Crusaders hear the Arabic jurjia and confuse it with St. John, so you'd have Jonia or something.
Click to expand...

Maybe Pontus?
 

jycee

Under a more recent POD the country could request to only be referred to by the local name and pronunciation: Sakartvelo. The way Persia became Iran and Ivory Coast became Cote d'Ivoire.
 

Urcea

Just remember for ATL naming conventions, it would almost certainly be changed and spelled differently during Anglicization. There are few (if any) complex or difficult to pronounce country names (save Djibouti perhaps) on an English language map of the world.

Since (I presume) you're writing your timeline in English, "Sakartvelo" might be rendered differently. Maybe even like "Sacart".
 
oshron

oshron

Spelf said:
Just remember for ATL naming conventions, it would almost certainly be changed and spelled differently during Anglicization. There are few (if any) complex or difficult to pronounce country names (save Djibouti perhaps) on an English language map of the world.

Since (I presume) you're writing your timeline in English, "Sakartvelo" might be rendered differently. Maybe even like "Sacart".
Click to expand...

thanks for the input :) i'd considered "Kartvelia" as an earlier rendition, partly because "Sakartvelo" means "land of the Kartvelians", iirc, in the same way that Bulgaria means "land of the Bulgars" or Turkmenistan means "land of the Turkmen". Sacart sounds cooler, though, and is slightly more in line with OTL in this sense
 

Falecius

oshron said:
thanks for the input :) i'd considered "Kartvelia" as an earlier rendition, partly because "Sakartvelo" means "land of the Kartvelians", iirc, in the same way that Bulgaria means "land of the Bulgars" or Turkmenistan means "land of the Turkmen". Sacart sounds cooler, though, and is slightly more in line with OTL in this sense
Click to expand...

It may be end up as something like "Sacartia", with possible pseudo-etymologies linking it to Sagartia (the Classical name of a not very clearly located region of Iran that is, as far as I know, not particularly related to Georgia in any important way, but still).
 
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Urcea

Falecius said:
It may be end up as something like "Sacartia", with possible pseudo-etymologies linking it to Sagartia (the Classical name of a not very clearly located region of Iran that is, as far as I know, not particularly related to Georgia in any important way, but still).
Click to expand...

This would actually be preferable. Sacartia is fairly similar (in the root and how I/we arrived there in the thread) to other location names, such as Bohemia.
 
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