13th century. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi (ქართველები, i.e.

'Kartvelians'), first attested in the Umm Leisun inscription found in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a
great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, one
of the proto-Georgian tribes that emerged as a dominant group in ancient times.[18] The name
Sakartvelo (საქართველო) consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i (ქართველ-ი), specifies an
inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, or Iberia as it is known in
sources of the Eastern Roman Empire.[21] Ancient Greeks (Strabo, Herodotus, Plutarch, Homer,
etc.) and Romans (Titus Livius, Tacitus, etc.) referred to early western Georgians as Colchians
and eastern Georgians as Iberians (Iberoi, Ἰβηροι in some Greek sources).[22] The Georgian
circumfix sa-X-o is a standard geographic construction designating 'the area where X dwell',
where X is an ethnonym.[23]

Today, the official name of the country is Georgia, as specified in the Georgian constitution
which reads "Georgia is the name of the state of Georgia."[24] Before the 1995 constitution came
into force, the country's official name was the Republic of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს
რესპუბლიკა, romanized: Sakartvelos Resp'ublik'a) and it is still sometimes referred to by that
name.[25][26]