Why is America called America?

AMERICA

America gets its name from the traditional family name Amerigo belonging to Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), who was an Italian navigator and merchant.

Vespucci began his career in the bank of Lorenzo and Giovanni Pier Francesco de Medici. In 1491, he was sent to Seville, where he met Columbus. At the beginning of 1505 he was summoned to the court of Spain for a private consultation and was appointed chief navigator for the famous Casa de Contracion de las Indias (Commercial House for the West Indies), a post of great responsibility, which he held until his death.

The period during which he made his voyages falls between 1497 and 1504. The first tool place in 1499-1500 when, it is believed, he discovered the mouth of the Amazon  and sailed as far as the Cape of La Consolacion or Sao Agostinho (about 6" latitude South). On the way back he reached Trinidad and then made for Haiti, believing all the time that he was sailing along the coast of the extreme easterly peninsula of Asia.

At the end of 1500, under the auspices of the Portugese government, he reached the coast of Brazil and discovered the Plate river. This voyage was tremendous importance in that Vespucci became convinced, and convinced others, that the newly discovered lands were not part of Asia, but a New World.

In 1507, a humanist scholar name Waldseemuller suggested that the newly discovered world should be named America, after Amerigo. The extension of the name to North America came later. The first official use of the name United States of America was in the Declaration of Independence of 1776.