Is South Africa the world's most appropriately named country?

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Can't think of one with a more descriptive name.

Chad.

Is that another name for Florida? 

Please reply and don't leave my bad joke hanging.

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Can't think of one with a more descriptive name.

What about Ecuador?

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Iceland?

A rumor has been circulating for centuries that Iceland and Greenland had been mistaken for each other when they were given their names.

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Can't think of one with a more descriptive name.

What about Ecuador?

That's a good one, or Equatorial Guinea.

Yeah but there's also two other "Guinea" countries so where is the real Guinea?

Where the guinea pigs live.

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Australia, whose name is derived from Latin.

Those of you who weren't taught creationism in high school should have heard of Lucy, the most famous specimen of the genus Australopithecus. She didn't live in Australia, even though her name may insinuate it, she lived in East Africa about 3M years ago. The name of that genus is derived from he Latin word australis, meaning south, which has its origins in auster, the name for the heavily humid southers in ancient Rome.

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Australia, whose name is derived from Latin.

Those of you who weren't taught creationism in high school should have heard of Lucy, the most famous specimen of the genus Australopithecus. She didn't live in Australia, even though her name may insinuate it, she lived in East Africa about 3M years ago. The name of that genus is derived from he Latin word australis, meaning south, which has its origins in auster, the name for the heavily humid southers in ancient Rome.

And yet Austria's "Österreich" means "Eastern realm", correct?   I suppose those two must have been from the same root word, but somehow came to represent different things in the German and Latin languages.

According to this German Wikipedia article, the similarity between those two names is sheer coincidence.
The Austrian name is derived from the Proto-Germanic *austar- and means, as pointed out by you, "eastern".
That stem can also be found in other geographic names: The eastern part of the Frankish Empire, for instance, was named Austrasia. Furthermore, in the Old Icelandic mythology, the dwarf of the East was called Austri.
It's actually pretty interesting that two similar sounding names are derived from two different cardinal points.

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I suspect perhaps it's not sheer coincidence, but that the connection is lost to time. Maybe something to do with star/stella/astro, since stars are used to tell direction?

The Greeks and the Romans named their winds after their properties. (Guess how they called the mild west wind. 😀)
Latin austerus (austere, harsh, pungent)> Greek αὐστηρός (bitter, harsh)> αὔω (to light a fire)

The stem of the name Austria is cognate with aurora, derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂éwsōs for dawn (which the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn was named for). The Greek word ἠώς, meaning daybreak, morning or the East is derived from the latter word.