Why was America called America?
As you know, the discoverer of the American continent, Christopher Columbus, did not call the land discovered by him his name, because he considered it the East coast of Asia, or rather, India.
In Spain, until the end of the XVII century, the name “Western India” was used, and it was forbidden to call the continent “America” in official documents and on geographical maps.
The common version of the appearance of the name “America”, set out in all geography textbooks, is briefly as follows. Discovered by Christopher Columbus, the new continent received its present name “America” after the Italian Navigator Amerigo Vespucci, who in 1507 was the first to prove the isolation of this part of the world and describe it in detail. However, this “academic” version has its opponents.
Some Brazilian historians argue that “America” is a purely local name and comes from the word “Maroka”, the name given to their Supreme deity by the ancient inhabitants of Brazil.
And the American scientist of French origin Lambert de Saint-brie was able to irrefutably prove that the continent described by Amerigo Vespucci already in those days (the beginning of the XVI century) was still called “America”, i.e. Vespucci only used a local name that accidentally coincided in sound with his name.
And in the end, it turns out that the exact answer to the question: “Why is America called America?”not yet received.