However, time went on and countries around them got accustomed to call former Muscovy Russia. That trend only grew stronger when Russia moved its capital to St Petersburg. By 19th century of Nationalism calling Ukraine Rus would be understood as not as sovereignty and independence affirming but rather pro-Russian. Thus, Ukrainian nationalists needed a new independence affirming name to call their country by.
For its part Russia decided to call this land Malorossia, lesser Russia, while calling areas around Moscow and St Petersburg Velikorossia, Greater Russia. It mirrored Polish approach where areas around old capital Cracow were called Malopolska and areas around new capital, Warsaw, Welikopolska. That echoed Russian view on the history where Kyiv was original capital of Russian state and Moscow was next one. In addition to Malorossia and Velikorossia they also had Belorussia (modern Belarus) and Novorossia (modern southern Ukraine that they took from Ottomans and Crimean Tatars).
Ukrainians however found this term derogatory and contrary to their nationhood aspirations and refused to use it. Eventually as 19th century progressed, Ukrainian nationalists settled on the name Ukraine.
However, what this name means and how they got it. There could be several theories for that.
One is that this name is an evolution of the word Okraina that means Borderlands or Fringe lands. That however is unlikely, as from Ukrainian point of view their country is located rather centrally between Tatars and Turks to the south, Europeans to the west and Muscovites to the northeast. Someone even suggests calling the country Central Consular Republic when Ukraine regained its independence in 1991.
However, there is one area in modern Ukraine where that word indeed could have mean Borderlands or Fringes and that is Kharkiv. That area is also known as Sloboda Ukraine or Slobozhanschina and was first to use this term for itself. Sloboda Ukraine was started by then Muscovite government on its southern borders for settlers from other parts of both Muscovy itself as well as Poland. Because of that such etymology would make sense for this area in particular.
It might as well be that this term gradually spread to the rest of what is now Ukraine or Ukrainian nationalists simply stole it from this area and begun using it to call their country.
Yet I have yet another theory for the name origin. The name simply means "in the country" U Krainy in Ukrainian language. "V Kraiyu" in Russian for those who do not understand Ukrainian.
While that sounds rather far-fetched there are other name places with very similar etymology. For example, Istanbul in Turkey originated from a phrase "is tam pol" which meant "to the city", at that time named Constantinople or Kostantiniyye. Eventually informal phrase that was frequently used by the residents became the official name.
In case of Ukraine Cossacks in Sich likely used phrase "in the country" frequently. Cossacks regularly moved between the settled areas in the north and Sich in the south, thus a simple way of referring to either of these areas was needed. It was used to refer to things peculiar to life in the settled civilized area as well as when talking about girlfriends, families and relatives that were left behind "in the country". In contrast "U Sichi" or "U Stepi" would be used to refer to life in the wild steppes. Overtime phrase "U Krainy" came to be understood not as phrase but as a name of the country.
A final note. The paragraph above does not necessary negates etymology for Slobozhanschina area of Ukraine. It is possible that Slobozhanshina came up for a name for itself in 17th century based on the meaning of borderlands. Later the rest of Ukraine in 19th century came up with near identical name entirely by accident based on its own reasons and etymology. Both words are based on rather simple common root word "Krai" that has many different meanings and used for variety of places in both Russia and Ukraine.
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