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Smithsonian Magazine ·Smart escape

How Did the Nation Get Its Name? Other Suggestions Included the United Colonies, Columbia and the United States of Alleghania

Published 2026-09-08 11:45:00+00:00

If the founders didn't think they were creating a nation, what exactly were they naming?

0:00 / 12:38 · Narrator Rasalgethi

Context

When the founders sat down to name their new country, they treated every word as a political calculation. In a special report published on 8 September 2026, Smithsonian Magazine strips away the inevitability of the United States of America. The original drafts left the word united uncapitalized to emphasize independent states over a single national identity, while later generations spent a century trying to change the name entirely. From Washington Irving's push for Alleghania to a congressman's doomed pitch for the United States of the Earth, the historical record reveals how a familiar title was almost discarded.

Show notes

A history of how the United States got its name, tracing the shift from a loose confederation of independent states to a centralized national government. It outlines the 19th-century campaigns by writers and politicians to replace the name entirely, detailing rejected alternatives that included Columbia, Alleghania, and the United States of the Earth.

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