what was america called before it was named?

Answer 1

There were, and still are, many native American names for various parts of North America. I believe the Ojibway had a special reverence for the turtle, so they may have called it something that meant Turtle Island.

People in northern parts of North America use the names Nunavut, Nunatsiak, and Nunatsiavik for their land, so I expect there are numerous other native names.

Answer 2

This is a fascinating question, if you mean the names given to their lands by the first nations who had been living in the Americas for hundreds of thousands of years before the Europeans arrived.

And just as interesting is the array of answers you've already received. Look how Eurocentric these answers are ! Your correspondents mention early place references by European explorers and their governments, but, except for Imaka, they pay almost no attention to the fact that a huge variety of nations, cultures and languages already existed on the two continents.

How did all these cultures name their lands? I've never even seen this subject addressed. It's a vast concept. Many doctoral dissertations in linguistics and anthropology could easily be generated to deal with this question. Indeed, many probably already exist. Because of the hundreds of language groups, there could be no one right answer, no single name. It would be more a question of comparing concepts of land ownership among significant first nations from perspectives such as spiritual origin, hunting and fishing rights, trading patterns, burial traditions.

The name I've always heard is Turtle Island. In addition to the Ojibway, the Iroquois, also, refer to North America as Turtle Island.

But what, though, would the Toltecs and Aztecs of central America have called their homeland, before the Spaniards arrived? Certainly not Turtle Island.




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Answer 3

America consists of two continents (North and South America).

This country is the United States of America.

Before our Independence from England we were just the American English colonies.

Answer 4

The New World?

Answer 5

England referred to it as The Colonies. It was sometimes referred to as the New World. The indigenous peoples just called it the land.

Answer 6

Imaka is right. The natives named their territories based on physical attributes of the land. For example:

Nebraska means "flat" or "broad river" in the Omaha language; this makes it similar in meaning but not pronunciation to the Algonquian term for "long river" that eventually became Connecticut. Ohio means "good river" in Iroquoian languages, and Oregon means "beautiful water" in Algonquian. Kentucky has one of the more mysterious meanings: "dark and bloody ground.

Try out this site for more info.

http://www.manataka.org/page263.html

Answer 7

The New World,for Columbus thought he had found a new route to India.That is why the natives were called Indians.

Answer 8

Vinland, by the Scandinavians. I suppose the natives didn't name it because they didn't think in terms of boundaries. They just named different spots by descriptions.

Answer 9

The new world.

Answer 10

By the people who lived here: home.