Now I’m not talking about the country here, rather the plates, cups and saucers that we call china. Don’t ask me why, but I suddenly wondered “Why is it named after a country?” Seemingly china is called china because it often came from China!
(It was first used in the 1570s to describe “porcelain imported from China,” it was shortened to china from the words China ware or China dishes. You might hear the words pottery, dishware, crockery or ceramics, and if it’s porcelain it’s called fine china.)