Originally posted by CoolestPerson12

Wow the exaggeration. You must realize. This issue is really just something that gets lost in translation. Spanish doesn't have a word for it while English does. It's really something that simple. The U.S. Has always called itself America since it's inception. It was called America by the world for all it's history, today it's still gets called America. You can't just change your name because of a translation issue in Spanish. You can just change your name because after over hundreds of years it's something that is held dearly. For English speakers it's correct to call the United States any of the names mentioned here. But in Spanish and Portuguese it's not since America refers to the continent. However the continent is called North and South America, not America since it logically makes no sense to call it one continent. If that were the case Europe, Asia, and Africa would be one massive continent. And you know that is wrong because they are deprecated by plates.

I'm sympathetic to both sides because I see this as an issue lost in translation.

Originally posted by Mezter

Because America is NOT the name of the continent Let me break it down for those that don't understand.

There is a North America. There is a South America. Together, they make THE AMERICAS. The name of the country is "United States of America". Why would it be strange to shorten this?

Honestly, people from South America who get offended by us calling our country it's name shouldn't be.