ChinaPulse.com

QUESTION:
Chinese refer to their country as Zhong Guo - which roughly translates as the Middle Kingdom.

The Chinese have always seen China as being the center of the arts, the sciences and indeed all things cultural, so it's not hard to understand why the name Middle Kingdom.

Of course, China, the English name for the Middle Kingdom, is not a Chinese word at all. Where does the word 'China' come from:

A. From Sanskrit writings from about two thousand years ago;
B. From Marco Polo's travel writings in 1555;
C. From Richard Nixon who coined the name after his visit in February 1972;
D. None of the above.

ANSWERS:
A is the answer you were looking (or guessing) for. The Oxford English Dictionary says that the word China is found in Sanskrit writings from about two thousand years ago, and appears in various forms in several Asian languages.

If you said B, you are at least on the right road. The earliest European usage is by Marco Polo, and the earliest cited English usage dates from 1555.

The American Heritage Dictionary gives the origin as being a corruption of the name of the Qin dynasty, which ruled China in the third century BC.