The names the old maps wrote on this land: Catay next to Florida, India Superior, Apalchen, Quivira. 9 points on the WW9 Atlas, oldest first, each with its source.
"America" (Waldseemüller, 1507)1507 · On the map: Martin Waldseemüller, Universalis Cosmographia (1507) · Brazil (where the name was written)The first map to write 'America,' placed on South America to honor Amerigo Vespucci. The same map still shows 'India Superior' on the Asian side and leaves open whether these lands were part of Asia. The Library of Congress bought it for $10 million.Wikipedia, Waldseemüller map; Library of Congress (2003)
"Parias" for the northern land (Waldseemüller, 1507)1507 · On the map: Martin Waldseemüller, Universalis Cosmographia (1507) · Paria Peninsula, Venezuela (the name's source)Waldseemüller labeled the northern landmass 'Parias,' and wrote 'Terra Ulterius Incognita' along the unknown western coasts.Wikipedia, Waldseemüller map
"Oranbega" / "Norumbega"1529–1604 · On the map: Verrazzano (1529) and later 16th-century maps · Penobscot River, MaineGiovanni da Verrazzano's map of 1529 writes 'Oranbega.' After 1542 'Norumbega' appears on map after map as a great river and city of New England; Champlain (1604) took it for the Penobscot. Believed to be an Algonquian word, maybe 'quiet place between the rapids.'Wikipedia, Norumbega
"Hochelaga"1535–1556 · On the map: Giacomo Gastaldi, La Terra de Hochelaga (1556) · Mount Royal, Montreal, QuebecThe town Jacques Cartier reached on October 3, 1535: about fifty longhouses inside a palisade by the mountain he named Mount Royal. Gastaldi's map 'La Terra de Hochelaga' (Ramusio, 1556) shows it.Wikipedia, Hochelaga (village)
"Catay" and "Tangut" next to Florida (Oronce Fine, 1540)1540 · On the map: Oronce Fine, Nova, et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio (1540) · Gulf coast of Florida (where the map puts it)On Oronce Fine's 1540 world map, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico border Tangut (Mongolia) and Catay (China). The European mapmakers drew this land as Asia.Geographicus, 'Nova, et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio,' Oronce Fine, 1540
"Quivira"1541–1570 · On the map: Abraham Ortelius, Americae sive Novi Orbis (1570) · Near Lyons, KansasThe Wichita towns Coronado reached in 1541: thatched villages of up to 200 houses, corn, beans and squash, a ruler named Tartarrax. On Ortelius's map of 1570 'Quivira' floats over a huge region, and later maps keep moving it west.Wikipedia, Quivira; Raremaps, Ortelius 1570
"Apalchen": a town's name becomes the mountains1562–1565 · On the map: Diego Gutiérrez (1562); Jacques le Moyne de Morgues (1565) · Near Tallahassee, FloridaApalchen was a town near present Tallahassee, written down by the Narváez expedition in 1528. Diego Gutiérrez's map of 1562 is the first to show 'Apalchen'; Le Moyne's map of 1565 is the first to put it on the mountains. That is where 'Appalachian' comes from.Wikipedia, Appalachian Mountains
"Anian": a Chinese province on America1570 · On the map: Abraham Ortelius, Americae sive Novi Orbis (1570) · Northwest coast of North America (where the map puts it)Ortelius's 1570 map writes 'Anian' on northwest North America, a name from a Chinese province in Marco Polo's account. It became the name of the strait mapmakers hoped would lead to Asia.Raremaps, Ortelius, Americae sive Novi Orbis (1570)
"Wingandekoa"1587 · On the map: Abraham Ortelius, Americae sive Novi Orbis (1587 plate) · Roanoke Island, North CarolinaAdded on the 1587 plate of Ortelius's America for the English attempt on the Outer Banks.Raremaps, Ortelius, Americae sive Novi Orbis (third plate, 1587)