America’s Birth Certificate: Who Named the United States of America?

The USA could have been called the United States of Columbia

A poster of Columbia, the personification of America, from World War 1draped in a gown of the American flag. Columbia was an alternative name for America. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

The people of Italy are called Italians. Japan is home to the Japanese. Australians come from Australia. So why do we use the term “Americans” instead of “United Statesians” to refer to those who live in the United States? Surely this is something out of the ordinary, isn’t it?

The name America comes from the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Did the people of the country we now call the USA always call it the United States of America? Were any other names considered?

France gets its name from the Latin word Francia, which means “the land of the Franks.” Likewise, Germany is named after Germania, the Latin term for the region first used by Julius Caesar. Why don’t we have a similar Latinized term for the US?

In contrast to the names Germany, France, and Italy, a select committee of individuals chose the name United States of America. But it doesn’t mean there were no other options or that the name was set in stone.

The USA could have been called Columbia( Columbia University rings a bell?). But the USA missed the chance in 1819 when the nation of Colombia took the name.