I was reading the Wikipedia entry for East Timor today (which should give you some idea of how hard I was trying to procrastinate), and discovered that "Timor" is derived from the Indonesian word for "east", officially making the country's name "East East". In that spirit, I did a bit of digging to find some other great country name origins. Here are some interesting ones.
Brazil - actually named after the brazilwood tree, and not vice versa
Colombia - named after Christoper Colombus, who never once set foot in the country
Greenland - name given by Eric the Red to attract settlers, presumably after "Really-Cold-And-Covered-With-Snowlandia" failed to get them the kind of interest they'd hoped for
Namibia - "area where there is nothing". These folks need to get a hold of Greenland's PR firm
Iran - "land of the free"... more or less...
Niue - a New Zealand territory whose name means "Behold the coconut"
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