Why did America get the name The Americas?

Answer 1

A mapmaker thought a man called Amerigo discovered them.

There are a few different theories about how the American continent was named.

The prevailing theory is that America is the Feminized Latin version of Amerigo Vespucci's first name. Vespucci was an Italian explorer in the mid to late 1400's. Columbus was the first to discover the American continent (besides the Vikings 500 years earlier) in 1492, but he thought he was in India. Vespucci was sent, as an observer, on a voyage to what is now south America in 1499. In 1502, Vespucci's letters and observations were published; most notable where he declared that new discovery was not India (as Columbus had always claimed), but a new continent. In 1507, after Columbus' death, Martin Waldseemüller, a German map maker, published a new world map with a new continent named America.

Another theory, which was first proposed by Jules Marcou in 1875, suggested that America was named for the Nicaraguan city of Amerrique. Amerrique was a very gold rich city, which was supposedly visited by both Columbus and Vespucci.

A third theory, proposed by Alfred Hudd in 1908, is that America was named for Richard Amerke, who was a wealthy merchant who financed John Cabot's voyage to discover Newfoundland in 1497.