Who Discovered and Named "America"

 A common misconception (a theory that should really be deleted) but the United States OF America still likes to claim that the Americas were named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer who notably mapped the South American coast between 1500 and 1502. However, newly discovered lands were NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE; named after a person's first name.




The second most credible theory is possible, but  unlikely: that the Americas are named after Richard Ameryk, a wealthy Welshman who was the main investor in a pioneering trans-Atlantic voyage by John Cabot, which reached Labrador in 1497, two years before Vespucci.

THE MOST CREDIBLE THEORY:

Because the first Europeans known definitely to set foot in the Americas were the Norse, the following theory has MORE CREDIBILITY

Beginning in the eighth century, they burst out of their cultural homeland in Scandinavia in a series of expansionist waves of migration, likely triggered by over population, food shortage and by disease. It is very probable that the Russians had also.

The term Viking, though commonly used to denote ship-borne explorers, traders and warriors, is actually a verb, not a noun, and describes the acts of the Norsemen who originated in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, and raided the coasts of the British Isles, France and other parts of Europe and North America from at least the late 8^th century to the 11^th century. This period of world history (generally dated 793-1086) is referred to as the Viking Age. Famed for their navigation ability and long ships, the Norsemen in a few hundred years colonized the coasts and rivers of Europe, the islands of Shetland, Orkney, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland and for at least a short while also Newfoundland.

About (1000 AD), nearly half a millennium before Columbus, the Norse, (possibly Leif Eriksson or Eric the Red), were the first of the "Old World Peoples" to set foot in North America.

It has also been proven that in the year 1481 the British, having been lead by the Norsemen, had a fishing colony in Newfoundland. The colony was named after the British leader of the expedition. His last name sounded very much like America.

While a number of other theories regarding the origin of the name America have been advanced, none have been proven true (very strange, if it were true that the name first came into existence after 1492, but it is not).

                                                       THE TRUTH

Now generally accepted (the United States excluded) is that the name America is derived from an ancient Norse term, in very common use by the North Atlantic sailing fraternity, from about that magical year 1000 AD.

That right folks, one way or the other, America was definitely named by the Norse; if, there is any one country that can call themselves-- AMERICA-- then that one country is CANADA; but Canada already has it's name and is already a legitimate country.   

THE CHINESE HAD, IN ALL PROBABILITY, BEEN HERE LONG BEFORE. 
©Al (Alex,Alexander) D Girvan. All rights reserved.