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http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Georgia_(country) Georgia (Sakartvelo in Georgian), Georgians call themselves Kartvelebi, their land Sakartvelo, and their language Kartuli. These names are derived from a pagan god called Kartlos, said to be the father of all Georgians. The foreign name Georgia, used throughout Western Europe, is mistakenly believed to come from the country's patron saint, St. George. Another theory purports that the name comes from the Greek (for earth), because when the Greeks came to Georgia they saw the Georgians working the land, however this is clearly a case of folk etymology. The term is actually derived from Arabic Jurj, which in turn comes from Persian Gurj.

The Classical world knew the inhabitants of eastern Georgia as Iberians, from the Caucasian kingdom of Iberia — thus confusing the geographers of antiquity, who thought this name applied only to the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).

Gurj, the Persian designation for the Georgians, is also the source of Turkish Gürci (pronounced "Gürdji") and Russian Gruzin. The name of the country is Gurjestan in Persian, Gürcistan in Turkish, and Gruzija in Russian. The Persian name is probably related to the Armenian words for Georgian and Georgia, respectively Vir and Vrastan. (There are other instances in which a Persian word-initial gu- is derived from an earlier wi- or wa-.) Thus, both the Persian and the Armenian words appear to be related to the name Iberia, with loss of the initial i- and substitution of w or v for the b of Iberia.

There is also, in all likelihood, an etymological connection between the name Iberia and the historic province of Georgia called Imereti.

Very confusing, eh?