Which Italian navigator's travels led to North and South America being named after him?

Amerigo Vespucci is the correct answer because he was the Italian navigator whose explorations of the New World during the late 15th and early 16th centuries helped to clarify the geography of the Americas. Vespucci was among the first to suggest that the lands discovered by Columbus were part of a separate continent and not part of Asia, as Columbus initially thought. His letters and accounts of his voyages were widely published and circulated, leading to the use of his name for the newly discovered continents—hence "America."

Vespucci's name became synonymous with the continent primarily because of the mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller, who, in 1507, created a world map and named the new landmass "America" in honor of Vespucci. This choice was based on the belief that Vespucci was the first to discover that these lands were indeed a continent of their own, separate from the known world at the time.

In contrast, while Marco Polo is famous for his travels to Asia and his writings about his experiences, he played no role in the naming of the Americas. Christopher Columbus is known for his voyages that led to the European awareness of the Americas, but he believed he had reached Asia and