Columbia is a name used in the English language for many things and places. The name is dervived from that of Christopher Columbus. The term "Pre-Columbian" is used for American cultures before the arrival of Columbus and other European explorers.

Columbia shouldn't be confused with Colombia, a country in South America (also named after Christopher Columbus).


Columbia, late 19th century
from a Columbia Records phonograph cylinder package

The name "Columbia" is/was a poetic name for the United States of America, which largely fell out of use in the early 20th century.

Columbia was also a female personification of the USA, similar to the male Uncle Sam, often seen in political cartoons through the early 20th century (see illustration at right) and still used by Columbia Pictures.

The term Columbian has been occasionally used as an alternate word for American when referring to someone from the United States.

Places named "Columbia" include:

Things named Columbia include:

There is also the constellation Columba, the dove.

This is a disambiguation page; that is, one that points to other pages that might otherwise have the same name. If you followed a link here, you might want to go back and fix that link to point to the appropriate specific page.