The name 'America' comes from a mapmaker's mistake he never corrected

In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller labeled the newly charted continent 'America' after explorer Amerigo Vespucci, wrongly crediting him rather than Christopher Columbus with recognizing it as a separate landmass. Waldseemüller dropped the name from later editions once he had doubts, but a thousand printed copies of the original map had already carried it into permanent use.

— Library of Congress, The Map That Named America — Library of Congress Information Bulletin, 2003