Amerigo Vespucci vs. Richard Amerike

DeletedUser

A lot of people believe that America was named after Italian cartographer and explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

However, in 1479 (13 years before Columbus' first voyage), Richard Amerike (pronounced "America") sponsored John Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland. Columbus knew about the British discoveries in Newfoundland before he sailed.

Therefore, many people believe that America was named after Richard Amerike. One of the arguments for Amerike is that he was very important in terms of its discovery.

Another is that when a place is named after a real person, (eg. James Cook & the Cook Islands; but not Europa & Europe) it is named after their surname (unless they are royalty, because a lot of royals are of the same family, and have the same surname).

Amerike-supporters have said that if America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, it should be called Vespuccia.

However, the Vespucci-supporters have pointed out that all of the continents have Latin female names. America is the Latin female version of Amerigo (which is an Italian male name). Amerike is a Welsh surname.

This resulted in the Amerike-supporters saying that the other continents have not been named after real people, and naming America after a real person would mess up the naming system, so it may not be true.

So what do you think? Who is America named after? Do you have any other evidence for either side? Do you think it was named after someone completely different?
 
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DeletedUser

I really am not too sure about the whole thing, really, Im thinking more on Amerigo, but then again, that sounds more like an Oil company... Amerike is the same.

I'd have to say Amerigo, simply because more Oil companies have the word "Go" and the english word "Go" means... well... "GO!" as in Move forward, many Americans want to move forward, as in "GO!" so AmeriGO! Vespucchia is probably the one.

I vote Amerigo Vespucchia
 

DeletedUser13682

I'd say America is named from a hat of names people picked, and has nothing to do with either one of them, so I vote:

The Hat
 

DeletedUser

America is named after Amerigo because he made the map and therefore named it.
 

DeletedUser

We Canadians know, thanks to those wonderful Heritage minutes, that Canada is derived from the Cree word "Kanata", meaning "village" or "gathering place".

So, I'm going to say that America is actually derived from the Algonquian "ammerkeu", meaning "go home now" or "&*#^*", depending on context. We'll never really know, though, since Algonquian is a lost language.

p.s.;)

 

DeletedUser

iggyberto said:
America is named after Amerigo because he made the map and therefore named it.
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Sorry, but an older map which names America as America was made by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller. He may have named America, or he may have got the name from another place. Either way, he supported Vespucci - he even though Vespucci had discovered America!

Betsy said:
Algonquian is a lost language.
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Algonquian is a language family, but there is a language called Algonquin (I get them confused all the time, too). And over 2,000 people still speak Algonquin.
 

DeletedUser

Amerigo sounds more like a ride for children than someone who a mighty country was named after. i reckon amerike!!
 

DeletedUser

I think it went down like this. After leif ericson discovered america he decided to name it after himself but wasn't very clear. He said, "um eric ah yeah, lets go with that."
 
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