# Who was America named after? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608 "2003-05-02T13:06:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brainfizz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/da6949/32.png) [@brainfizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainfizz)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/1 "2003-05-02T13:06:25Z")
I was always taught that America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, who landed in South America. I was watching a programme on BBC1 last night, however, (What the Tudors did for us) and they mentioned that evidence had come to light that this was not so. The first European to land in North America came back and it was named after his friend the customs officer who was the first person he spoke to when he returned. This guy’s name was Mr Americ. His coat of arms had stars and stripes on it too. Anyone know any more about this? ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/2 "2003-05-02T13:27:25Z")
Hmm. I always learned a German cartographer named the New World America after Amerigo Vespucci. I’m interested in learning about this new information… ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/3 "2003-05-02T13:38:23Z")
I can’t answer the question but the origin of America’s name was discussed in these threads: [America NOT named after Amerigo Vespucci!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=317&) [america - named after amerigo v. or a mountain?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=1808) It also occurred to me while watching the programme, that the family coat of arms of George Washington [had stars and stripes on it](http://www.fotw.ca/flags/us-dc.html), and that’s the standard explanation for the design of the flag. Good coincidence though. [Here’s a link](http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/discovery/exploration/americaname_03.shtml) to the BBC’s own commentary. The guy’s name was spelt Amerike. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/4 "2003-05-02T13:46:28Z")
The explanation Cecil gives seems a lot more reasonable to me. Did the Beeb give any evidence for their theory? A lot of things in history took place for reasons I don’t get, but still, I feel obliged to say I can’t imagine why on Earth Signor Vespucci would name the continent after some guy. The similarity between Vespucci’s given name and this guy’s surname strike me as a little suspicious. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/5 "2003-05-02T13:51:37Z")
As for the first thread to which you linked, **everton** , all I can add is whatever you do, don’t listen to **Faentur**. His whole post, capped by: > [@](#): > > The famous cousin, incidentally, was a noble Italian woman whose portrait was painted by one of the more illustrius artists of the time. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, or even seen it - it hangs in the Louvre. Yes, you guessed it - the Mona Lisa! Strikes me as nonsense. Isn’t it well-known that we _don’t know who_ exactly is represented in the Mona Lisa. No “theories” please, as a theory is only that. I would require evidence in the form of a cite from the records of the artist himself. Now, this forms an interesting parallel. Even with all of the theories, it seems that no one today _really_ knows after whom America was named. One of the theories is obviously more popular than the others. I think that going back through papers and finding that so-and-so had a banker or a friend or a banker’s friend, or a customs officer, or a dog, or whatever, named Americ, Amerike, Amerik. All of this seems a little of a, um, stretch. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/6 "2003-05-02T13:56:55Z")
> [@](#): > > The first European to land in North America came back and it was named after his friend the customs officer who was the first person he spoke to when he returned. This guy’s name was Mr Americ. His coat of arms had stars and stripes on it too. It reeks of urban legend. What _is_ known is that the first published use of “America” was on Waldseemuller’s map. Since that’s the first use, you need to show that Amerike was the person Waldseemuller had in mind. Since Waldseemuller also published an account of Vespucci’s voyages at the same time he was publishing the map, it’s clear he knew of Vespucci (not to mention the fact that he specifically mentioned Vespucci in an introductory essay about to the map). The convention of calling the continent “America” derives from Waldseemuller’s use of it. Unless you can prove a connection between Amerike and Waldseemuller, there’s no evidence it comes from anything other than Vespucci – and there is a clear connection linking the two. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/7 "2003-05-02T14:00:38Z")
Richard Amerike did exist, so there’s no need to be suspicious about the similarity between his surname and Vespucci’s forename. Click the link I posted for more about the show and Peter Macdonald (the man who made the claims in it). The programme showed the stars and stripes on Amerike’s coat of arms but didn’t document any formal request he may have made that Cabot name his discoveries after his sponsor. Perhaps you have to read Macdonald’s book to get any more evidence? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/8 "2003-05-02T14:06:46Z")
Perhaps I ought to add that the BBC’s programme is part of an infotainment series not a serious documentary. I’ve seen plenty of other episodes that contained claims of, er, dubious veracity but were entertaining nevertheless. The keynote of it is that _x could have happened_ not _this is definitely true_. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/9 "2003-05-02T14:49:02Z")
Hijack, Troub, do you see the “theory” in the form of a flatly stated fact set forth by Vasari 25 years after Leonardo’s death (that it is fellow Florentine Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini, wife of Francesco di Giocondo) as equivilant to modern-day psychoanalytic claims (can’t remember who this was, nor do I have any interest in finding out) that the portrait is Leonardo self-portraiting his inner feminine id, for instance? Much of what is said about the most famous paintings is the art historical equivilant of ‘research’ on the pyramids, and some theories are better than other. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/10 "2003-05-02T16:22:39Z")
Ok, **capybara** , I _do_ think that some theories are better than other, obviously. But the truth is, we don’t know. From the [Louvre’s own website](http://www.louvre.fr/anglais/collec/peint/joconde/txtjocon.htm): > [@](#): > > The first statement concerning the model for the Mona Lisa, dates from the last years of Leonardo’s life, and talks of a portrait “of a certain Florentine lady done from life at the request of the magnificent Giuliano di Medici”. We know that Leonardo da Vinci took the portrait to France, during his stay at the court of François I (and no doubt he was still working on it), but he had begun it during his stay in Florence between 1503 and 1506. It therefore appears likely that the model, whoever it was, could have been Florentine. A later second statement by Vasari described the portrait of Mona Lisa, the wife of a Florentine gentleman, Francesco del Giocondo. This latter, a rich bourgeois holding a position of political authority in his city, really existed, but we know little about the life of his wife, Lisa Gherardini, born in 1479. We do know that she had married del Giocondo in 1495 but we in fact have no proof that she could have been the mistress of a Medici. A later anonymous statement creates a certain confusion, linking the Mona Lisa to a portrait of Francesco del Giocondo -the origin of the risky idea that it is the portrait of a man. > . . . > Even today, we possess no final proof of the identity of the woman shown by Leonardo. So yes some theories are better than others, but without “final proof” there is no way to be sure. Please also note that this type of theory is different from a _scientific theory_. Just to cut off anybody who might bring up various things like evolution, relativity, gravity, or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/11 "2003-05-02T18:50:48Z")
**Hijack:** Faentur is half-remembering historical fact, but is 100% wrong on the details. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by troub \* > As for the first thread to which you linked, **everton** , all I can add is whatever you do, don’t listen to **Faentur**. His whole post, capped by: > > > [@](#): > > > > The famous cousin, incidentally, was a noble Italian woman whose portrait was painted by one of the more illustrius artists of the time. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, or even seen it - it hangs in the Louvre. Yes, you guessed it - the Mona Lisa! > > Strikes me as nonsense. Isn’t it well-known that we _don’t know who_ exactly is represented in the Mona Lisa. No “theories” please, as a theory is only that. I would require evidence in the form of a cite from the records of the artist himself. Amerigo’s cousin (or, as some sources list, sister) is Simonetta Vespucci. She was a Renaissance-era supermodel and (in my estimation) is way hotter than Mona Lisa. She was painted by several Renaissance painters (though not by _Mona Lisa_ painter Da Vinci as far as I know). She is most associated with Sandro Botticelli who used her in several of his paintings, most enduring of which is “Birth of Venus.” Anyone who uses Adobe Illustrator is familiar with her face: it is the main graphic of the icon, splash-screen and packaging. You can also see “Birth of Venus” re-imagined in the movie “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” by Terry Gilliam, with a then-unknown Uma Thurman standing-in for Simontta as Venus. _Be still my beating heart._ ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/12 "2003-05-02T19:03:01Z")
Simonetta Vespucci, in addition, looks nothing like the Mona Lisa. If you know who both were, it’s pretty hard to confuse them. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/13 "2003-05-03T21:31:59Z")
America’s Birth Certificate [http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2001/01-093.html](http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2001/01-093.html) ---
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2003, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/14 "2003-05-04T09:51:18Z")
[This](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_021.html) is my \*\*favorite \*\* Cecil column of _all._ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/15 "2003-05-04T15:53:47Z")
I once read a history of Hungary by a Hungarian author. He claimed that the Hungarian name Imre was the source of the Germanic name Emerick, which became Americus in Latin, Amerigo in Italian. So America actually has a Hungarian name. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-america-named-after/172608/16 "2003-05-04T16:39:04Z")
So we now have the cover for Straight Dope #6 – The inimitable Signorino depiction of Cecil standing on a Scallop shell, one hand modestly shielding his privates and the other extended, pointing to a map of the Americas on which Chicago radiates his wisdom to the world. 🙂