Source: Compendium of curious information.
1. Cape of Good Hope
When the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias discovered the southern tip of Africa in 1488, the seas were so violent he called it the Cape of Storms. The nickname was hardly likely to encourage business through this new gateway to India, so Portugal’s King John II changed it to the Cape of Good Hope.
2. Greenland
This great, snow-covered island is a tenth-century example of false advertising. Eric the Red hoped to attract settlers from the more mild Iceland.
3. Idaho
When a name was needed for a new territory in the Pike’s Peak mining area in 1860, lobbyist and eccentric George M. Willing suggested the Indian word idaho, which he said meant “gem of the mountains.” Just before Congress made its final consideration, it was discovered that Willing had invented the term as a hoax. The territory was quickly named Colorado. However, two years later, when it came time to name another mining territory in the Pacific Northwest, the controversy had been forgotten, and on March 4, 1863, the territory of Idaho was established. The name was retained when statehood was achieved in 1890.
4. Nome
A classic geographical mistake, “Nome” was miscopied from a British map of Alaska on which “? Name” had been written around 1850.
5. Pacific Ocean
Magellan had the remarkable luck of crossing this ocean without encountering a storm, so he called it “Mar Pacifico” meaning “the calm sea.” The Pacific, in fact, produces some of the roughest storms in the world.