MERICA
Merica may have derived from "Marrike"
"Marrike" is a combination of "Marr" meaning, "Sea", and "Rike" meaning, "land" "Ocean Lands" was a name for the lands in the oceans west of Greenland. (Stromsted, 1973).
Comment: Ptolemy's map of the world, made in the second century, shows a "Serica" on the north coast of China. A 15 th century map prepared by Bartholomew Columbus shows "Serica" as the northern area of the "Mondo Novo" above the portion labeled "Asia."
Chistopher Columbus may have been a crew member on Johannes Skolp's ship that sailed into Davis Strait in 1476. There is no way to determine if Columbus heard "Merica," and thus thought he was near "Serica" or if his brother simply copied Serica along with other names from the second century map.
While a change from "M" to "S" is rare, these two sounds do occur in front of the mouth. The transformation is possible. "Merica" spoken by the local people may have sounded like "Serica" to Columbus' ear that was striving to hear names from Asia.
