page_title: Saint Kitts and Nevis
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Kitts and Nevis / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture taken June 20 2007 on ferry trip to Nevis taken myself.
context_page_description: Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country in the West Indies. Located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population. The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Elizabeth II as Queen and head of state. The only federated Caribbean country, it uses the federation system which is different from other Caribbean countries which use a unitary system.
  The capital city is Basseterre, located on the larger island of Saint Kitts. The smaller island of Nevis lies approximately 3 km to the southeast of Saint Kitts, across a shallow channel called The Narrows.
  The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, which was then known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla. However, Anguilla chose to secede from the union and remains a British overseas territory. To the north-northwest lie the islands of Sint Eustatius, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten and Anguilla.
context_section_description: Saint Kitts was named Liamuiga, which roughly translates as 'fertile land', by the Kalinago, who originally inhabited the island. The name is preserved via St. Kitts's tallest peak, Mount Liamuiga. Nevis's pre-Columbian name was Oualie, meaning "land of beautiful waters".
  It is thought that Christopher Columbus, the first European to see the islands in 1493, named the larger island San Cristóbal, after Saint Christopher, his patron saint and the patron hallow of travellers. New studies suggest that Columbus named the island Sant Yago (Saint James), and that the name San Cristóbal was in fact given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba, 32 km (20 mi) northwest. It seems that San Cristóbal came to be applied to the island of St. Kitts only as of the result of a mapping error. No matter the origin of the name, the island was well documented as San Cristóbal by the 17th century. The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, and dubbed it St. Christopher's Island. In the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit(t); hence, the island came to be informally referred to as Saint Kitt's Island, later further shortened to Saint Kitts.
  Columbus gave Nevis the name San Martín. The current name Nevis is derived from a Spanish name Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, meaning 'Our Lady of the Snows'. It is not known who chose this name for the island, but it is a reference to the story of a 4th-century Catholic miracle: a summertime snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. It is thought that the white clouds which usually wreathe the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of the story of a miraculous snowfall in a hot climate. The island of Nevis, upon first British settlement, was referred to as Dulcina, a name meaning 'sweet one' in Spanish. Eventually, the original Spanish name was restored and used in the shortened form, Nevis.
  Today the Constitution refers to the state as both Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Christopher and Nevis, but the former is the one most commonly used.
caption: Clouds covering Nevis Peak
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