Syria

The name may credit Syria for a crop that actually came out of Africa.

English took sorghum in the 1590s from the modern Latin genus name, which came through Italian sorgo and medieval Latin surgum. One line of etymology traces that to Latin Syricum granum, Syrian grain, on the theory that the crop reached Italy by way of Syria. Sorghum was domesticated in northeastern Africa, so if the etymology holds, the name records a trade route rather than a homeland.