Today’s post will go over the subject of the origin of Venezuela’s name.

The most commonly accepted theory of how Venezuela got its name, is that Alonso de Ojeda named the land after Amerigo Vespucci’s comment during a voyage made along the new land’s coast. Historians are almost certain that Vespucci made four trips to the new continent. In one of the two trips of which there is almost complete certainty that happened (the second one led by Ojeda, the other one being the third), Vespucci commented to Ojeda that the stilt houses the indians built on top of pillars in Lake Maracaibo reminded him of Venice, which led Ojeda -Captain and Leader of the expedition- to name the country with an italianized variation “Venezziola”, roughly meaning “little Venice”. The houses Ojeda and Vespucci saw are known as “Palafitos”.

A second theory states that Ojeda named the country after encountering a small local indian tribe who named themselves “Veneciuela”. The third and least accepted theory is that the name came from a variation of the city “Valencia”.

During the years I lived in Venezuela, I would say that 99% of the population accepted the theory of the houses on the lake theory. There were dozens of references and stories about it in the Venezuelan culture, including many songs that were titled “Pequeña Venecia” (Little Venice).

In my next entry, I will discuss the arrival process of the European conquerors and how they set their new ventures in this new territory that would be now known as “Venezuela”.