The Naming of America

Strictly speaking, the name was given by a German Professor of Geography, Waldsemuller, connected with the college at St. Die, in France. The first book printed on America (1504 or 1507) was a well-written account of the four voyages of Americus Vespucius. Waldsemuller, referring to the fact that he had discovered "a fourth part of the world," and that the other three parts, Europe, Asia and Africa (Lybia), were named for women, suggested in the introduction of his new geography that the "Mundus Novus" (New World) be called, for its discoverer, America. This in no way suggested an injustice to Columbus, for during long years Columbus was still supposed to have only discovered a short route to the east coast of Asia. In the new geographies of the times "America" was written across our Southern Continent, and to-day, in Spain, America always means South America and the islands north of it, never the United States.