The name America is attributed to which explorer for recognizing that South America was not Asia?

• A. Amerigo Vespucci
• B. Christopher Columbus
• C. Ferdinand Magellan
• D. James Cook

Answer: (A)

Amerigo Vespucci. He argued that the lands sighted in the Americas were not part of Asia, but a separate “New World.” His accounts of voyages along the coast of South America helped people realize this distinction. When a mapmaker in 1507 labeled the new continents with the Latinized form of his first name, Americus, the feminine form America, the name stuck. This combination—Vespucci’s recognition of a distinct landmass and Waldseemüller’s decision to name it America—is why the name is attached to him. Columbus thought he’d reached Asia, Magellan completed the first circumnavigation, and Cook explored additional Pacific regions, but the attribution of the name to Vespucci comes from his role in recognizing a new continent and the subsequent naming on early maps.