Latin-American Studies

The Associated Press reported in 2007 that “[s]ometimes called America’s birth certificate, the map and accompanying 103-page book Cosmographiae Introductio caused the hemisphere to be named for explorer Amerigo Vespucci instead of Christopher Columbus.” Thus one theory of the name is that America was named for Amerigo Vespucci. It has been argued that even though he was not the first person to ‘discover’ the continent (this is attributed to Christopher Columbus), he was the first to realize that it was a new continent and not a part of Asia (the East Indies as Columbus thought). According to the Cosmographiae Introductio, the name of the continent was derived from the Latinized version of the Amerigo Vespucci’s name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form, America, since the other continents all have female names (The Associated Press, 2007).

Another theory, presented by Peter MacDonald of the BBC is that America got its name from Richard Amerike (Richard ap Meurig), a Bristol businessman of Welsh descent who lived in the 15th century. He notes that Amerike provided money and wood (for shipbuilding) to John Cabot’s voyage from England to Newfoundland in 1497. Based on this MacDonald argues that “Amerike sought reward for his patronage by asking that any new-found lands should be named after him.”

A third theory is presented by Cohen, J. (n.d.), who argues that the most credible theory of the name of the American continent is the so-called Amerrique theory which was first advanced in 1875 and he notes reappeared in the late 1970s in an essay by Guyanan novelist Jan Carew, entitled ‘The Caribbean Writer and Exile.’ According to this theory, the name America was brought back to Europe from the New World. That is, America was not named after Vespucci, but vice versa: Amerigo Vespucci changed his name to reflect the name of his important discovery.