When most of Americans write the name of the South American country they spell it with U instead O. Something that irritates Colombians, since we feel Americans are trying to Americanize our country’s name. I rather understand this is more due to lack of awareness or carelessness than anything else. The word Colombia is, the same as in English, a female gender derivation of the last name of the discoverer of the American continent, which in Spanish is Colón. In Italian Columbus´ full name is Cristoforo Colombo and in Latin it is Cristophorus Colombus. In this way, the name ColOmbia comes from the name ColÓn. Unlike ColUmbia, ColOmbia does not have a poetic image. That historical one that represents the United States like a woman wearing the American flag colors. That very popularized by the Columbia Pictures film company. I also understand there are a lot of places, Media, institutions, brands, transportation means, fictitious things and many other stuff named Columbia ...
Opinion blog from Colombia to the world.