The first name America
A girl’s name meaning “son of meurig”.
Pronounced /əˈmɛɹɪkə/ 4 syllables Female
Meaning and origin
America means “son of meurig”.
Learned borrowing from New Latin America, feminine Latinized form of the Italian first name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). Amerigo is an Italian name derived from a Germanic language and is etymologically related to Henry and Emmerich. The earliest known use of America for the (South) American continent is on a 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller; see Naming of the Americas for more. Although this is the most widely accepted derivation, it has also been suggested that it could originate from the name of the Amerrisque mountains in Nicaragua (from Mayan), and another disputed theory is that it derives from the surname of Richard Amerike (1440–1503), whose surname is an anglicised form of Welsh ap Meurig (“son of Meurig”), from Old Welsh Mouric, which could be a rendition of Latin Mauritius (compare Maurice).
From Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in the United States
Babies named America at birth, 1880–2025
In 2025, 117 girls born in the United States were named America, the 1,734th most popular girls’ name that year. It was used most in 2005, when 719 were.
US Social Security Administration, from applications for a Social Security card. A name is only published for a year when at least five babies were given it, so quieter years show as zero.
Nicknames and spellings
Other spellings and forms
- Amerika
Famous people named America
3 on Wikidata, most written-about first
- America FerreraAmerican actress and producer (born 1984)
- America OlivoAmerican actress and singer, born 1978
- America YoungAmerican actress, born 1984
Questions
- What does the name America mean?
- America means “son of meurig”.
- Is America a boy's or a girl's name?
- Mostly a girl's name: 100% of the 13,538 US babies named America since 1880 were girls.
- When was America most popular?
- 2005 in the United States, when 719 babies were named America, its highest rank at 427th.
- How do you pronounce America?
- America is /əˈmɛɹɪkə/, 4 syllables.
- What are other spellings of America?
- Amerika.