[Verginius Rufus]

America is the feminine form of the name Americus (Latin form of Amerigo)...the other continents had feminine names (Asia, Africa, Europa). The name Amerigo is said to be the same as the Hungarian Imre, as in Imre Nagy (hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956) and Imre Kertesz (winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature). If the continent had been named Vespucia then the claim for Richard Amerike couldn't have been made...but America sounds better.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Of course, if Amerike was the source name, we would all be leftists and spell it Amerika. (If we had lost the Revolutionary War, we'd all be speaking English too.)