How Did America Get Its Name? - Library Of Congress Blogs

John Mode says: July 11, 2018 at 11:00 pm

Brazilians named their country Brazil. It is kind of like parents naming their child “Brazil”. Once a country gives itself a name this is what it is called just like the name of a person. And many countries have, over time, changed their names which is their right to do so.

Our founders created a new nation and called it, The United States of America. This is our name. No other country in the Western Hemisphere named their country with the name “America” as part of that country name. But even if they did this would not change our name for our country. Here let me spell it out for you…we started out as 13 colonies that decided to rebel against Great Britain. We then called the former colonies, states and these states united together to form the United States of America. Now there are 50 states that are united…the United States. But we are 50 united states of a country we call America.

There are two continents called North America and South America. There is also Central America and Latin America. These names all reference land masses of many countries and all are named different and unique names, only one of which has the name “America” as part of its name.

Here is Merriam Webster’s dictionary definition of the word “of”. It is definition 4a – used as a function word to indicate the whole that includes the part denoted by the preceding word – most of the army.

So the United States of America is analogous to the example given in the dictionary example. “of” in this case is a function word that indicates the whole (America) that includes the part denoted by the preceding word (United States).

If you, as a person, want to be called Bob everyone will call you Bob. If you want to be called America we will address you as America. We named ourselves America. This is what we want to be called.