I always thought she was supposes to be an anglicized Athena.
britannia is the female personification of britain
her trident shows the naval power of britain and over time she is represented in many ways as a symbol of power and as a goddess of britain. she was used in coins too until 2008 under charles II.
you ca read more at wiki
her statues were slightly based on athena and goddess minerva
but there are other sculptures of hers.
she represents naval power that is why they generally say that
Interesting, but this thread is a decade old…
<insert zombie joke here>
I have been wanting to open a chain of shops specializing in imports from the United Kingdom. I would call them “Britomart,” have a female knight as a mascot and see if anyone gets it.
It means ‘an ornament and a safeguard’ actually 
Brittania’s US equivalent is not “Uncle Sam”, it’s Columbia. The female personification of the United States as a whole.
“Uncle Sam” is the personification of the U.S. government.
Ninja’ed by 10 years.
English majors, yes.
Apparently, I agree! 
“Yankee Doodle” isn’t a personification of anything, at least not in any contemporary understanding. It’s the title of a song. “Yankee” is a nickname/epithet for some group of people (which group varies according to your point of view) and also isn’t a personification of anything. I don’t know whether it might have been at some point in the past, though.
:smack: wow, yeah. I need to drink more coffee in the mornings I think.
Wow, ten years. That’s gotta be the longest time between a punchline and a whoosh I’ve ever seen.
The Smurfs have really taken the mystique out of the Phrygian cap, haven’t they?
We are not amused.
I hear he’s a back door man.
I scrolled down hoping that Britannia had joined to answer the thread.
I scrolled to the top to see if Boadicea had.
I think all the countries need to adopt new mascots.