Origin of transliteration of ~j/sw to ~r in Mandarin
Yes. 

瑞 is seoi6 (IPA: /sɵy̯²²/) in Cantonese, and sūi (IPA: /sui²²/) in Hokkien, so is a fairly close match to the French word Suisse and the English name for Sweden. The origin of a lot of translations for smaller Western countries came from the Chinese varieties of the southern ports of Guangzhou (Canton) and Xiamen (Amoy) amongst others.

惹 in some varieties of Hokkien (specifically Zhangzhou, which gave rise to Penang's variety) is pronounced jiá (IPA: /d͡ʑia⁵³/), which again is a closer match to the voiced affricate of -ja ज in Sanskrit-derived Indo-Aryan languages. 

The 者 version is one option that Mandarin has (being an affricate, and in right area of the mouth), and also has the right semantic connotations (representing a person).

Although it is not a general phenomenon, topolectally-divergent transliteration is still a thing. Compare how Mainland Chinese, Malaysians and Singaporeans transliterate David Beckham's surname (貝克漢姆, simpl. 贝克汉姆) with how Hong Kongers/Macanese do so (碧咸), with how Taiwanese do so (貝克漢).