America gets its name from the traditional family name Amerigo belonging to Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), who was an Italian navigator and merchant.
The period during which he made his voyages falls between 1497 and 1504. The first took 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 Portuguese government, he reached the coast of Brazil and discovered the Plate river. This voyage was of 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 named Waldseemuller suggested that the newly discovered world should be named America, after Amerigo. The extension of the name to North America came later.
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