Integral to the story of the origin of the name "Antarctica" is how it was not named "Terra Australis"—this name was given to Australia instead, and it was because of a mistake made by people who decided that a significant landmass would not be found further south of Australia.
Celo v poznem 17. stoletju, ko so raziskovalci odkrili, da Južna Amerika in Avstralija nista del legendarne »Antarktike«, so geografi verjeli, da je celina veliko večja kot je njena dejanska velikost.