{"id":31438,"date":"2016-02-06T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T05:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.besabine.com\/whats-in-a-name-colombia-vs-columbia\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:54:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:54:41","slug":"whats-in-a-name-colombia-vs-columbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.besabine.com\/en\/whats-in-a-name-colombia-vs-columbia\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it Colombia or Columbia? | The right answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Confusion all around, because what is the real name of the country I live in?<\/strong> The country associated with drugs, Pablo Escobar and the FARC, but also with beautiful nature, white beaches and lovely people. Are we talking about Colombia or Columbia? Colombians themselves get quite frustrated with the many foreigners who keep misspelling the name of their country; even journalists get it wrong.<\/strong> So time to settle this lack of clarity once and for all. Is it Colombia or Columbia: what is the correct spelling?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The country of Colombia<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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A little bit of Colombian history<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the year 1499, it was the Spaniard Alonso de Ojeda who was the first to set foot on Colombian grounds.<\/strong> Present-day Colombia was discovered in 1536 by Gonzalo Jim\u00e9nez de Quesada and Sebasti\u00e1n de Belalc\u00e1zar, after which it was a Spanish colony for a long time.<\/p>\n

In 1810, Colombia declared its independence<\/strong>, but it wasn’t until 1819, under the leadership of Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar and Francisco de Paula Santander, that there was true independence.<\/strong> Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar then became the first president of the Republic of Gran Colombia<\/strong>, consisting of present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama. In 1830, Bol\u00edvar was deposed and Venezuela and Ecuador seceded.<\/strong> Panama followed in 1903.<\/p>\n

Name changes<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Several name changes occurred throughout this period.<\/strong> In 1819 the name Republic of Greater Colombia was adopted, then in 1830, after the secession of Venezuela and Ecuador, the country was renamed the Republic of New Granada.<\/p>\n

In 1858, the name was changed again, this time to Granadine Confederacion, only to be changed to the United States of Colombia five years later, in 1863. It was not until 1886 that a name was finally given to this piece of land: Republic of Colombia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christopher Columbus<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Despite the fact that he never set foot on Colombian soil, Colombia is named after the navigator Christopher Columbus<\/strong>, a traveling companion of Alonso de Ojeda. And that is exactly where the name confusion comes from.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now you wonder: why do they name Colombia after someone named Columbus? With an “u,”. As you may know, Christopher Columbus is not a Spaniard, but an Italian. His Latin last name is Columbus, but in Italian his name is Cristoforo Colombo.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t