Donald Trump has suggested that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed and referred to as the Gulf of America in the future. I have a better suggestion that would be far more historically accurate. We should rename North America itself (‘América Mexicana’: Mexico’s president responds to Trump with renaming of her own, 8 January).
As the vikings of Norway are thought to be the first persons from Europe to have reached the continent now known as North America, the name should reflect this. Thus the name should be derived from the Norwegian language. And as many Algonquian- and Iroquoian‑speaking peoples who lived on the east coast and suffered first contact with Europeans referred to the continent as Turtle Island, we should also honour them. After all, they lived there before Europeans brought their feudal and exploitative capitalistic systems to the continent.
Turtle in Norwegian is skilpadde. And island is øy or øya. Henceforth, North America should be referred to as Skilpaddeøya. That would certainly be a challenge for the postal service.
Carla Toney
Karlsruhe, Germany
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