Where did we get the name America? - Big Questions - (Ep. 201) | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm Craig, America Benzene, and this is Mental Floss on YouTube

Today I'm going to answer Fred T's big question, where did we get the name America? Let's get started

So, South America was probably the first continent to be called America. The earliest that the term has been found in print is 1507, when it labeled Brazil on a map

The map was created by two men, Martin Waldseemuller and Mathiar Ringmann

The former was very famous back in those days for the Wehrswald-Semuller books

They then published their map in a book which stated, quote, I do not see what right anyone would have to object to calling this part after Americus, who discovered it, and who is a man of intelligence

Amerigin, that is, the land of Americus, or America, since both Europa and Asia got their names from women

The man they're referring to is Amerigo Vespucci, also known as Americus Vespuccius. Vespucci was an Italian who lived from 1454 to 1512, and around the turn of the 16th century, he traveled to South America

On that journey, Vespucci crossed the Atlantic and found modern-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata

Does that mean he traveled through time? No, he found the area where they are

He also might have spent some time exploring the Amazon River on that expedition. He ended up visiting modern-day Brazil around three times in his life

The accounts aren't clear, though, and some say that he went back a couple more times

Many experts claim that Ringman was particularly inspired by Vespucci's journey. The story goes that he read one of Vespucci writings while working as a proofreader He was especially intrigued by the journey because Vespucci described crossing the Atlantic hitting land then boating along the coastline for thousands of miles Yeah that sounds like a lot of fun I really intrigued by that Ringman likened this to Virgil story about a similar legendary land which was to be ruled by Rome

Allegedly, this excitement got Ringman to reach out to Waldseemuller. Then they printed 1,000 copies of their infamous map that named America

And by the mid-16th century, the name was commonly used in maps. Eventually, map makers started differentiating between North America and South America

It's worth mentioning that there's another claimant besides Vespucci, Richard Americk. Old Richard Americk was a customs officer living in Bristol, and he may have helped finance

John Cabot's exposition that discovered North America for the English. The believers of this hypothesis make an interesting point

Places are usually named after last names as opposed to first names, like Amerigo

But there's basically no other evidence to support this story. So shut up

The name America was controversial for a while, by the way, because some people believe that the Americas should be called Columba, after Columbo, I mean Christopher Columbus, since

he discovered it. we all know now that this is totally ridiculous since none of these were true discoveries as

there were non-Europeans here all along. I think Columbo figured that out

As for the United States, for a while it was known as the United Colonies. It was merely

just a region within what is known as North America. But in 1776, the Continental Congress

officially named the country the United States of America. And that's why we are today called USOA