5/1/23 My interest in linguistics is growing stronger, so I wanted to share a fun fact!
America comes from the feminized Latin name of Amerigo (As in Amerigo Vespucci, who said that Columbus didn't reach India but a new continent.) Amerigo is an Italian form of the German Emmerich, from Proto-Germanic *Halmariks. *Halmariks turned into Heinrich, which went into French as Henri, and eventually into English as Henry.
So now you know! If you ever want to make a gijinka of the US of A... name him Henry! Or, to be more accurate, Henrietta!!!