How South America Got Its Name: Amerigo Vespucci’s Legacy

The Explorer

Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), an Italian navigator sailing for Spain and Portugal, was the first to recognize that the lands Columbus reached were not Asia but a “New World.”

Naming Sequence

1. 1503–1504: Vespucci publishes letters describing the continent as “Mundus Novus.”
2. 1507: German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produces a world map labeling the new land “America” in Vespucci’s honor (feminized Latin form of Amerigo).
3. 1516: Spanish explorer Juan Díaz de Solís uses “South America” to distinguish the southern continent from “North America.”

Why Not Columbus?

Columbus died believing he had reached Asia. Vespucci’s correct assessment—and the timing of Waldseemüller’s influential map—cemented the name.