Wrong to call the USA, America

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

It's the USA, United States of America. America's just the short form. And they did form the economic, democratic, military, medical, technological, and industrial powerhouse of the North American continents.

[tha_green_ghost]

Shit....it doesn't really matter what we call it , we call it United States too. We call it the U.S. for short, and America for short. If you think about it, no other countries actually have the word "America" in it, only South America as a continent. What the F*CK! does it matter?

[psteve]

no other countries actually have the word "America" in it

American Samoa is a country.

[tha_green_ghost]

That doesn't count! LOL

[tha_green_ghost]

By the way ......NO it is not "wrong" to call USA America.... why would it be?

[dean0000]

I usually call USA 'The US'. If someone says America everyone knows what they mean. When I am talking about the whole of America (Canada, Mexico etc) I call them 'The Americas'. Thinking about it I dont even know if 'Americas' is good English.

[tha_green_ghost]

Yeah ,the "Americas" is generally used for the continents together..North, Central and South.

[growwatcher]

actually america isn't named after amerigo vespuci...

NO ONE ACTUALLY KNOWS, there are lots of theories why we are america....

research people

OK. That is contrary to what I have always heard and from what I learned in school, so I headed over to wikipedia to see what it says.

From the Wikipedia article on Amerigo Vespucci:

Vespucci's voyages became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1504.[1] In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent "America" after Vespucci's first name, Amerigo.

So can you point me to something that disputes that?

Grow

EDIT: Ok, after a little more reading I did come across some "alternate theories" on the name, but none are or have been widely accepted.

[smokerofweed420]

Actually you're absolutely right. There are plenty of other countries on the American continents. In north america you have Canada, US, Mexico, and then all of the countries south of mexico but north of South America. And then all the South American countries. Pretty much everyone living in the western hemisphere save for those in the caribbean could call themselves American. Actually my spanish teacher was saying that it kind of bugs mexicans and other latin americans that the US calls itself America. They actually have a word that means someone from the United states and the word is Estadounide which comes from Estados Unidos, spanish for United States. The literal translation would be something like Unitedstatsian.

[halfassedjediknight]

Its funny but I actually call it the states, and im here in California.