It is believed to be a borrowing from Middle Persian, and some have traced it further back to Sanskrit. It is also generally thought that the ultimate source of the name China is the Chinese word "Qin" (Chinese: ?), the name of the dynasty that unified China but also existed as a state for many centuries prior.
Similarly one may ask, where does China's name come from?
The name 'China' comes from the Sanskrit Cina (derived from the name of the Chinese Qin Dynasty, pronounced 'Chin') which was translated as 'Cin' by the Persians and seems to have become popularized through trade along the Silk Road.
Similarly, what is the Chinese name for China? Zhonghua Renmin Gong He Guo
Hereof, what was China's name before China?
Zhongguo
Why is it called Mandarin and not Chinese?
The Ming dynasty officials wore yellow robes, which may be why “mandarin” came to mean a type of citrus. And the language the Chinese officials spoke became “Mandarin,” which is how the English name for the language more than 1 billion people in China speak still comes from Portuguese.
