Alternate names for America

[Brita]

Working on my TL, I'm looking for alternate names that could have been given to OTL America in a world where neither Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci existed.

Just now, I'm planning to have a group of Cathars settling in North America in the 1230s but not trying to conquer it. They'll just call it Nueva Tierra and create a few villages/small towns, the main one being called Speranza, which might eventually become the Cathar colony's name.

However, once more Europeans cross the Atlantic they're bound to try and find a name for this unknown continent. What plausible names could be chosen?

Just now, I'm thinking of Oceania or Hesperia or even Atlantis (although the Church might not like the idea of a continent named after a pagan myth, especially given the religious situation I'm planning for the period).

If anyone has suggestions, feel free to share!

 

[Duke_of_Darkness]

Turtle Island is a possible name. That is what some indigenous Americans called North America. Abya Yala could also be an indigeneous name for South America.

 

[Aghasverov]

Occidentalia or some variant thereof?

 

[Brita]

Turtle Island is a possible name. That is what some indigenous Americans called North Americans. Abya Yala could also be an indigeneous name for South America.

Turtle Island sounds good. Actually I could see Cathar settlers adopting this name.

Occidentalia or some variant thereof?

I didn't even think of this one. Now that makes me think Ponentica could be another. The word ponant is simply beautiful.

 

[Kellan Sullivan]

even Atlantis (although the Church might not like the idea of a continent named after a pagan myth, especially given the religious situation I'm planning for the period).

what about something after Saint Brendan?

 

[oshron]

my personal go-to name is "Cabotania", from John Cabot, partly because i think it just rolls off the tongue better than "Cabotia"

 

[Brita]

what about something after Saint Brendan?

I like the idea. Actually, the Cathar settlers ITTL have Celtic connections and sail away hoping to find Brendan's Island and be able to practice their religion freely.

 

[Flashman]

I could see Cathars going for something as off-the-wall as Eden.

Turtle Island is a possible name. That is what some indigenous Americans called North America. Abya Yala could also be an indigeneous name for South America.

Some of the problems I have with the Turtle Island name is

1) In Algonquinian belief, "Turtle Island" did not apply to 'North America,' it applied to the entire world. It only took on this specific meaning in the 20th century. Now of course to the Algonquinian people for all intents and purposes North America was the whole of the world, but it seems rather improbable that European explorers, posing the question "What do you call this place," would receive the answer "Turtle Island" anymore than a European would tell some trans-atlantic Algonquinian that this place was called "Earth" or "The Expanse below the Firmament."

2) Being in the Northeast, Algonquinians are going to be actively and persistently contacted to the point that Europeans are aware of their cosmology fairly late in the game. After all, IOTL the concept is only recorded nearly 200 years after the discovery of the Americas.

3) It seems almost inconceivable to me that Europeans, given the nomenclature that has already been established for the three continents of the Old World, would go with something as pared down as "Turtle Island." Rather they would follow the convention of other continents, and give it something Latinate/translated.

Of course if you're referring purely to indigenous self-identification, this stuff becomes less relevant, but I will note that since in any case the concept of the continent and the Americas as something distinct from other continents probably going to get introduced by Europeans, so there is still some weight to how Europeans would interact with this name.

 

[Brita]

The only problem I find with Turtle Island actually is the fact they're too far North for Cathars to meet them - and I can't see other Medieval European groups giving a whole continent a Native name.
Given the currents, I suppose the Cathar settlers would most likely land somehere in Florida or the Carribeans. Of course if the first tribes they have contact with also believe in a cosmic turtle (the motif seems to occur in many different religions) then they could give an island such a name.

 

[Ivan Lupo]

Ideally, something indigenous. I could absolutely imagine a scenario where any European settlers refer to the whole land mass after the first major tribe they run into. The Nahuatl speaking peoples, specifically the Mexica, called the region beyond their lands Cemanahuac. The Mayans had the word Zipacna, after a demonic crocodile that represented the Earth's crust. And of course, there's Abya Yala from the Guna people of the Darien.

If the Spanish are still the first group of people from Europe that arrive, I could definitely see a Hispanicized or Latinized version of Zipacna or Cemenahuac. Or there's also the theory that America actually derives from the word Amerrique, itself derived from the Amerrisque Mountains of Nicaragua and inhabited by the Amerrisque people.

Africa is hypothesized to be derived from the Amazigh word Aourigha, which would have been pronounced Afarika, and designsted a specific Amazigh tribe. If this is the case, then to me it's conceivable that the Spanish follow the same sort of naming tradition, especially if they're consistently repelled from the continental shores.

 

[PGSBHurricane]

Maybe (North and South) Terra Verde, which is what the brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real named Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland OTL except ITTL it’s applied to all of the Americas.

 

[Ivan Lupo]

For instance, if the Romans had ever somehow made it to the Western Hemisphere, they had the general convention of naming regions after the predominant people group, or otherwise adopting whatever Greek or Punic term that already existed. Obviously, these terms would be Latinized. The most plausible mainland area for Romans to arrive to once they get past the islands would probably be the Yucatan peninsula, and what modern scholars refer to as the Yucatec Maya referred to themselves simply as Maya. The term was of course applied to all the other Mayan language speaking peoples, so I could definitely see the Romans (or any later Catholic explorers that want to use Latin to name lands in that fashion) refer to the Yucatan region as something like Maia and corresponding people that speak similar languages as Maii. In similar fashion, the island inhabitants could be referred to as Tainii or Kalinagii (what the island Caribs called themselves).

 

[SealTheRealDeal]

Outremer/Ultramar

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

Corn/maize was pretty widely cultivated across the Americas so maybe something that means "land of corn." Or possibly the name of whoever gets credit for "discovering" the Americas.

 

[Brita]

Ideally, something indigenous. I could absolutely imagine a scenario where any European settlers refer to the whole land mass after the first major tribe they run into. The Nahuatl speaking peoples, specifically the Mexica, called the region beyond their lands Cemanahuac. The Mayans had the word Zipacna, after a demonic crocodile that represented the Earth's crust. And of course, there's Abya Yala from the Guna people of the Darien.

I like the idea of keeping indigenous names. Maybe not for the whole continent but definitely for some of the countries.

If the Spanish are still the first group of people from Europe that arrive, I could definitely see a Hispanicized or Latinized version of Zipacna or Cemenahuac. Or there's also the theory that America actually derives from the word Amerrique, itself derived from the Amerrisque Mountains of Nicaragua and inhabited by the Amerrisque people.

With the exception of the Cathar settlers, who'll be content to find a name for their small colony but not the whole continent, I think the next settlers will come from Brittany, Aquitaine or England. Maybe Portugal at a pinch.

Outremer/Ultramar

This one sounds good too.

Corn/maize was pretty widely cultivated across the Americas so maybe something that means "land of corn." Or possibly the name of whoever gets credit for "discovering" the Americas.

I think I'll avoid naming it after the guy who'll "discover" it but I like the "land of corn" idea. And corn makes me think... what about Cornucopia?

 

[Aluma]

When the portuguese came to Brazil they named it "Land of the True Cross" (Vera Cruz)
So maybe if the other colonizer powers took a page out of their book or simply adapted the name you could have America be called something like "Terra Veritas"(land of the truth)

 

[Gabingston]

Turtle Island is a possible name. That is what some indigenous Americans called North America. Abya Yala could also be an indigeneous name for South America.

How about Tortolia for a more poetic form of Turtle Island?

 

[Glory2Cabinda]

Where in the America's do the Cathars land? The environment and people they would encounter would make it easier to pick out names

 

[Plateosaurus]

*Columbia intensifies*

Turtle Island is a possible name. That is what some indigenous Americans called North America. Abya Yala could also be an indigeneous name for South America.

Testudina?

My suggestion, the local indeginoud name for a region gets corrupted into the name for the whole continent.

 

[Brita]

Where in the America's do the Cathars land? The environment and people they would encounter would make it easier to pick out names

I was thinking, given the Atlantic currents, they'd probably get somewhere in the region where Columbus landed. The Carribeans or Florida. I'm not a seafaring specialist though.