Colombia hasn't always been Colombia. The South American country has cycled through five different names in under two centuries, and the story behind the current one says a lot about how the nation sees itself.

The name itself is a tribute to Christopher Columbus, the Genoese navigator whose 1492 voyage set European colonisation of the Americas in motion. Oddly, Columbus never set foot in what is now Colombia — Pedro de Alvarado and later Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada led the conquest of this Andean region for Spain. The country's colonial-era name was Nueva Granada (New Granada), a title handed down by the Spanish crown to cover the provinces that roughly make up modern Colombia.

The whiplash of name changes tracks the country's political upheavals. After Simón Bolívar's Gran Colombia — which included Venezuela and Ecuador — broke apart in 1830, the rump state rebranded as the Republic of Nueva Granada. Federalism swept in by 1858 and the country became the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 it went further, adopting the grandly federal United States of Colombia. That stuck until 1886, when conservatives pushed through a centralised constitution and settled on the Republic of Colombia — the name still in use today.

The Columbus homage didn't stay contained to South America. During the 18th century the name caught on across Britain's North American colonies and Canada, and it's still all over the map: the District of Columbia, the province of British Columbia, and the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest all trace back to the same man. Colombians are well aware of the confusion this causes — hence the country's long-running, slightly weary public campaign reminding foreigners it's Colombia, not Columbia.

For travellers, this history isn't just trivia. It explains why Bogotá's old quarters feel distinctly Spanish, why the national anthem references a land 'bathed in the blood of heroes', and why Colombians bristle at the spelling mix-up. Knowing that the country only settled on its name in 1886 also frames its identity debates — Colombia is a young nation-state layered over an old colonial territory.

It's useful context before a trip: Bogotá's Museo Nacional walks through the Gran Colombia era and the 1886 constitution, and the independence story plays out across landmarks from Cartagena's walled city to Bolívar Square in the capital.