37. Amerigo Vespucci gave the Americas their name
Amerigo Vespucci was the first to demonstrate that the land masses discovered by Columbus and other explorers were separate from the Eurasian land mass. It is from his first name, and fortunately not his last, that the name for the newly discovered continents came into being, from its latinized version of Americus. In 1507 the term was used in a map produced by a German cartographer, identifying both the North American and South American landmasses as America, using the feminine form of Americus. Thus a German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemuller, bestowed upon the New World the name by which it became known in the Old World.