Who Named the United States? (Short Animated Documentary)

The United States of America. The USA. America. The Land of the Free. These are just some of the names for that continental sized nation which Alaska wishes it could touch. You'll be surprised to know that other names were considered for the new nation during the American Revolution against Britain and that a name wasn't settled on until the Constitutional Congress. Until other ideas, like Columbia or Fredonia were proposed. So why did the Founding Fathers choose the name 'United States of America'. Find out in this video, the latest in my very short, animated historical documentaries (about history).

God Bless Fredonia.

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Sources:
(Bawl-)Fredonia: Renaming, Remapping, and Retelling the United States in the Early Republic by Christian Quendler

The Naming of America by Franz Laubenberger and Steven Rowan

[tboneforreal]

Fun Fact: The "DC" in Washington, DC stands for District of Columbia so they did get to use Columbia for the name of the capital at least.

[merrittanimation]

USA: "Columbia is a dumb name."
Gran Colombia: "Well if you're not going use it I might as well."

[undo]

citizen: "what should we call or nation?"
some guy named Fred:"I have a brilliant idea"

[ravenlord]

They should have named it "Atlantis" just to screw with historians and archeologists a thousand years from now.

[azulaquaza]

Captain Fredonia: I can do this all day

[karnickel-sd]

The author Washington Irving had proposed that we rename the USA to "Appalachia" after our Eastern mountain range. This would be problematic since no one in the USA can agree on the pronunciation of the Appalachians.

[dna]

USA: *Tries to change name to Colombia
*That username is already taken*

[StefanoBertacchi]

It's funny because in Italian, for calling Americans, we have "Statunitensi" that is literally "United Statesian" :D

[robertwelding]

There was already the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, so the name, United States of America, simply followed an established pattern.

[aliensinnoh]

“No one would call themselves United Statesian”

People who speak Spanish: *sweat nervously*

[ricardoguanipa]

Alternative universe where Freedonia Stuck and all pop music developped the same:
Bruce Springsteen - Born In Freedonia
Miley Cirus - Party in Freedonia
Green day - Freedonian Idiot
Don McLean - Freedonian Pie
Hulk Hogan's theme - I wanna be a Freedonia

[merouln]

While the people of the USA are referred as "américains" in French, things that are related to the country itself can sometimes be referred as "états-uniens" which is literally "united statesian".

[corporalzeph]

Missed opportunity to have named the continent after Amerigo's last name, because then we'd be called "the United States of Vespucci" which is more badass

[samaritan]

Obviously the United States's parents named them like that, duh.

[Hotshotk]

Oh, so that's why Bioshock Infinite's floating town was called "Columbia"

[KitchenSinkSoup]

Fredonia is the most American name for something I've heard though.

[ivanivanofivansson]

Fredonia... Sounds like a minecraft village made by 12 year olds.

[ReinoldFZ]

Growing in Spanish it was confusing because the Spanish word "América" is used for "the Americas" in English, so each time it was mentioned in movies I thought it was meant in reference to the whole two land masses of South and North America, not a country. Now I use America in English for the country, and in Spanish América for the Americas. It is just how language evolves differently for very similar words, like that Simpson episode about inflammable xp

[AFGuidesHD]

Fredonia?
Nah, I'm thinking more Freedomland

[kulera]

Mexico’s official name is “The United Mexican States”. There has been small talk to simply change it to “The Republic of Mexico” or just simply “Mexico” but it’s just easier to keep things as they are even though no one calls it by its official name.

Fun fact: Colombia’s official name was “The United States of Colombia” for a short period before becoming “Republic of Colombia” and changing its states to departments.