America

Land of Machirites

(29 July, 2018, 17 Av, 5778)

Contents:
1. Introduction. Amerigo Vespucci and Machir of Narbonne
2. The Indian Advocacy Video Clip
3. Other Sources Concerning the Name "America"
4. Summary of the Other Sources and Commentary

1. Introduction. Aermigo Vespucci and Machir of Narbonne

We understand that the name America derives from Amerigo Vespucci. This person proved that the Continent of America was a separate entity and not part of Asia as previously supposed. A famous map was drawn up incorporating his information. The map had his name on the back of it. Consequently, by intent or by accident the New World received the name America. Previously other names, such as "Colombia," had been proposed. Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence in northwest Italy. This area is close to Narbonne in southeast France. In the early Middle Ages, a Jewish Prince had ruled over the area as an autonomous entity though subject to the King of France. This person is mentioned in contemporary Jewish Records as well as in Christian ones. His memory remained among the Christians who posthumously seem to have made him one of their saints and forgot his Jewish antecedents. The Jews called him "Machir," or "Ha-Machiri." The name Machir in the Bible can mean "Recognition" or "Known (to God)" or something like that. It may also connote the Principle of Price i.e., Capitalism. Machir was the first-born son of Manasseh (Genesis 50:23, Numbers 26:29, Numbers 32:39-40, Numbers 36:1, Judges 5:40, 1-Chronicles 7:14, etc). The other version of the name "Ha-Machiri" means "Descendants of Machir" or "Pertaining to Machir." In later colloquial Hebrew however such name forms were used as dimunitives or nick-names. For instance my name is "Yair" but Jews in that period who wanted to speak of me in familiar terms might say "Ha-Yairi." So Machir was also known as "Ha-Machiri." This name in its Hebrew form is difficult for Europeans to pronounce and cannot be exactly transliterated. So it became "America" or some other form of the name similar to that (see the sources below). In those days it was not unusual for the one person to write his own name in several different ways.
Amerigo Vespucci received the name that had become popular in the area he was born in. Amerigo gave his name to America. The name America is applied to the whole two Continents of North and South America. These days however the term "America" in common speech means the USA. It follows that Divine Providence so decreed that the USA should receive a name connoting descendants of Machir the first-born son of Manasseh. The USA was founded by people from the Tribes of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) and has characteristics that fulfill what was prophesied concerning Joseph and Manasseh. The fact that its very name associates it with Manasseh is significant.
Incidentally the name "Manasseh" in Hebrew (as explained by Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch) connotes Responsible Representation.

2. The Indian Advocacy Video Clip
We were asked to comment on a video clip concerning the naming of America.

Why Is the Continent Named "America" ?
https://youtu.be/U4fn1W5Whog
The narrative of this clip quotes a few books that in turn quote others.

Here is an extract:

"... part of South America - from Venezuela to Peru - was called Amaraca by the Indians of that region.... Various spelling of Armaraca occur in Spanish documents including the visit to that land by Alonzo de Ojeda, with whom Vespucci sailed in 1499."

"The mapmaker (Vespucci) named himself after the New World, and his friends and historians then claimed the Americas were named after him" Stephen Quayle, True Legends.

They also claim that Amerigo Vespucci was originally named Alberigo Vespucci and he changed his name to Amerigo in order that it be thought that America was named after him!

3. Other Sources Concerning the Name "America"

We looked up a few sources on the Web:

Naming of the Americas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_of_the_Americas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Americus Vesputius was the Latinized version of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, the forename being an old Italianization (compare modern Italian Enrico) of Medieval Latin Emericus (see Saint Emeric of Hungary), from the Germanic forenames Amalric and Emmerich (however, the Old High German name Haimirich may also be a source), from Proto-Germanic *amal('vigor, bravery') or *heim ("home") + *rik ('ruler').[5]
Spain officially refused to accept the name America for two centuries, saying that Columbus should get credit, and Waldseemueller's later maps, after Ringmann's death, did not include it; however, usage was established when Gerardus Mercator applied the name to the entire New World in his 1538 world map. Acceptance may have been aided by the "natural poetic counterpart" that the name America made with Asia, Africa, and Europa.[4]

http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question104945.html
his name can be (and was) spelled in quite a few ways - like Shakespeare and many others in the good old days before computer records... He may not have changed his name at all. The people writing about him did it for him. (Even with a nice new computer system installed, you should see some of the stuff that comes from the office to me...)

Named after a Nicaraguan mountain range
In 1875, Jules Marcou suggested that the name America derives from indigenous American languages where "Amerrique" originally named a prominent mountain range in present-day Nicaragua.[7]

In this view, Native speakers shared this indigenous word with Columbus and members of his crew, and Columbus made landfall in the vicinity of these mountains on his fourth voyage.[8][9] The name America then spread via oral means throughout Europe relatively quickly even reaching the cartographer Waldseemueller who was preparing a map of newly reported lands for publication in 1507.[9] Waldseemueller's work in the area of denomination takes on a different aspect in this view:

The baptismal passage in the Cosmographiae Introductio has commonly been read as argument, in which the author said that he was naming the newly discovered continent in honour of Vespucci and saw no reason for objections. But, as etymologist Joy Rea has suggested, it could also be read as an explanation, in which he indicates that he has heard the New World was called America, and the only explanation lay in Vespucci's name.[9]

Among the reasons proponents give in adopting this theory include the recognition of 'the simple fact that place names usually originate informally in the spoken word and first circulate that way, not in the printed word.'[9][10] In addition, Waldseemueller not only is exonerated from the charge of having arrogated to himself the privilege of naming lands, which privilege was reserved to monarchs and actual explorers, but also is freed from the charge of violating the long-established and virtually inviolable ancient European tradition of using only the first name of royal individuals as opposed to the last name of commoners (such as Vespucci) in bestowing names to lands.[11]

Richard Amerike[edit]
A Bristol antiquarian Alfred Hudd suggested in 1908 that the name was derived from the surname "Amerike" or "ap Meryk" and was used on early British maps that have since been lost. Richard ap Meryk, anglicised to Richard Amerike (or Ameryk) (c. 1445-1503) was a wealthy English merchant, royal customs officer and sheriff of Bristol.[12] According to some historians, he was the principal owner of the Matthew, the ship sailed by John Cabot during his voyage of exploration to North America in 1497.[12] The idea that Richard Amerike was a 'principal supporter' of Cabot has gained popular currency in the 21st century.[12] There is no known evidence to support this.

In 1886, Jules Marcou said Vespucci renamed himself from Alberigo Vespucci (Albericus Vespucius) to Amerigo Vespucci after meeting the native inhabitants of the eponymous Amerrique mountain ranges of Nicaragua that connect North America and South America, an important geographic feature of New World maps and charts.

THE NAMING OF AMERICA: FRAGMENTS
WE'VE SHORED AGAINST OURSELVES
BY JONATHAN COHEN
https://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html
Vespucci was born in 1454 in Florence, where he was baptized, according to the official record, "Amerigho" not, as Carew asserts, Alberigo. The use of the form Amerigho for Amerigo is an instance of the orthographic anarchy that existed in the spelling of proper names. The name Amerigo derives from an old Gothic name, Amalrich. In all its forms found in Europe (Greek "Aimulos," Latin "Aemelius") the underlying meaning was that of work. Amalrich, which literally meant work ruler, or designator of tasks, might be freely translated as master workman. Old German forms of the name were Amalrich, Almerich, Emmerich; the Spanish form was Almerigo; in England it was Almerick, or Merica in old families in Yorkshire.

America is Israelite. Names of the USA Prove Israelite Ancestry
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/tribes/america.html
Extract:
At all events, the name Amerigo or "America" is similar to Medieval appellations ("Aimerico", etc.) for a Jewish Prince of southern France.
This prince in Hebrew records of the time is referred to as Machir or Ha-Machiri.
Arthur J. ZUCKERMAN, "A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 768-900", New York, 1972. p.375 notes that Machir (Ha-Machiri) was referred to as Al Makhiri, and as "Aimerico", and "Aimericus". Zuckerman p.131 n.38.

4. Summary of the Other Sources and Commentary
Amerigo Vespucci really was named that. He did not change his name from Aberigo. There may have been South American Indians who had already given a name that sounds similar to stretch of territory in Central America. Coincidences like that occur in history more often than we known. Even in the unlikely event that the name America had originally been applied because of the Indians it became popular and was spread due to its association with Amerigo Vespucci. America therefore could still be considered to have received its name in honor of Vespucci.
We do not think that the name Amerigo is derived from the Gothic Haimirich or what not. Even if it was, the name was still influenced and popularized and associated with Machir of Narbonne the Latinized version of whose name was Amerigo.

See our other articles in this subject and associated evidence.

America is Israelite. Names of the USA Prove Israelite Ancestry
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/tribes/america.html
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. America.
3. Columbia
4. New World; Erets Acheret
5. Yank
6. G.I. Joe
7. Brother Jonathan and Uncle Sam