what's origin of word 'China'?

[minhwa]

chinese today call their country 'zhong guo', and in earlier times, ' zhong yuan'.

the second mean central plains/kingdom, and not wrongly translated as middle kingdom by the west. like most early big civilizations, early chinese believe themselves to be the only civilization that mattered.


oops, i digress .. ok, so, why did the west call zhong guo, china?


thanks ..

[jpatokal]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=china :

The Persian word and the Sanskrit word cinah, “Chinese people,”