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Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: The 10 People with the Most Square Miles of the Earth’s Surface Named After Them
by Stacy Conradt - December 19, 2008 - 3:12 PM

q10

So I just discovered The New Book of Lists by David Wallenchinsky and Amy Wallace. It. Is. Fabulous. At least, it is for someone who loves trivia and loves making lists. Plus, it gives me fodder for random conversation starters (I totally busted out A Christmas Story trivia at a work dinner function last week, by the way). This book has all kinds of completely random lists, and there are several different incarnations of the book. I think I asked for all of them for Christmas. Anyway, today’s list is just a little taste of the book. I’m sure you’ll see more in the future if Santa Claus delivers the goods!

vicki1. Amerigo Vespucci. North America + South America = 16,243,000 square miles
2. Queen Victoria. Queensland, Australia + Victoria, Australia, + the Great Victoria Desert + Victoria Island, Canada + Victoria Island, Antarctica + Lake Victoria, Africa + the Victoria Strait of Canada = 1,196,410 square miles
3. Norwegian Queen Maud. Queen Maud Land, Antarctica + Queen Maud Mountains, Antarctica + Queed Maud Gulf, Canada = 1,102,000 square miles
4. British explorer James Weddell. Antarctica’s Weddell Sea = 1,080,000 square miles.
5. Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman. Tasman Sea + Tasmania, Australia + Tasman Peninsula, Australia = 925,100 square miles.
6. Christopher Columbus. Colombia + British Columbia + Columbia Plateau, United States + Washington, D.C. + 10 counties in the U.S. + Colon department, Honduras + Colon department, Panama = 920,150 square miles.

7. Russian Explorer Vitus Bering. The Bering Sea = 879,000 square miles.

8. Saudi King Ibn-Saud. Saudi Arabia = 865,000 square miles.

9. U.S. Naval officer Charles Wilkes. Wilkes Land, Antarctica = 660,000 square miles.

10. Dutch explorer Willem Barents. Barents Sea = 592,000 square miles.

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Comments (17)

  1. Very interesting indeed!!

    posted by Paul on 12-19-2008 at 3:57 pm

  2. Abel Tasman also has a national park named after him in New Zealand (it’s beautiful!), on the north coast of the south island. So that’s another 22,530 hectares for him.

    posted by Rebecca on 12-19-2008 at 4:00 pm

  3. Why just counties named after Columbus? Why not cities like Columbus, Ohio, or Columbia, South Carolina?

    posted by Derek on 12-19-2008 at 4:15 pm

  4. I wonder where Henry Hudson would fall on a larger list?

    posted by gibson8or on 12-19-2008 at 4:52 pm

  5. Isn’t the United States feminized name “Columbia,” hence Washington D.C. is the District of “Columbia”

    posted by Evan on 12-19-2008 at 5:51 pm

  6. Yeah, what about George Washington? He probably has a significant amount

    posted by Hannah on 12-19-2008 at 5:51 pm

  7. Please note that the country of Colombia is spelled with an “O”… NOT A “U”.

    posted by Rachel on 12-19-2008 at 7:12 pm

  8. British Columbia is named after the ship that discovered the area.

    posted by Smart Guy on 12-19-2008 at 7:31 pm

  9. They missed the first emperor of China Ch’in Shih-huang! People’s Republic of China, Republic of China, South China Sea. That’s 5,108,402 square miles by my count, which puts him at #2.

    posted by Paul Drye on 12-19-2008 at 9:05 pm

  10. China was named after a person? I thought chin meant “central” or “middle” so China (chin gwa) means Middle Kingdom, or Central Country.

    And how about Colombia, the South American country? Was it named after Columbus?

    posted by Miss Cellania on 12-19-2008 at 10:09 pm

  11. You’ve obviously overlooked Bob Pacificocean.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 12-19-2008 at 11:33 pm

  12. China, first lord to unite the lands… At
    Least that’s what I learned falling asleep to
    The Channel formerly known as the history channel.

    posted by Sean Walsh on 12-20-2008 at 2:14 am

  13. It’s Amerigo Vespucci, not Americo.

    posted by Calamity Kate on 12-20-2008 at 2:38 am

  14. China in Chinese is zhong guo. Zhong is middle and guo is kingdom. So you’ve mixed up the chinese meaning with the English syllable.

    In English it is named after a person, but in Chinese it is not.

    posted by Tim on 12-20-2008 at 6:59 am

  15. @Smart Guy
    “British Columbia is named after the ship that discovered the area.”

    Who do you suppose the ship was named after?

    posted by Stv Dvs on 12-20-2008 at 11:02 am

  16. I’m glad someone else mentioned Abel Tasman park in NZ!

    posted by Dawn on 12-21-2008 at 9:47 pm

  17. There is a bit of controversy over whether or not America is named after Vespucci. Several sources claim that it is in fact named after Richard Ameryk, a wealthy merchant from Wales who was a major investor in the early voyages of John Cabot. My favorite point to support this theory is that new lands are almost always named after a person’s LAST name, not their first, with the exception of royalty.

    posted by Dan McC on 12-22-2008 at 1:09 am

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