Language & WorldFact
Venezuela literally means 'Little Venice'.
In 1499, an expedition with Amerigo Vespucci saw indigenous stilt houses standing in the water of Lake Maracaibo. They reminded the Europeans of Venice, so they called the area 'Veneziola', little Venice, Spanish Venezuela. A nickname for a few stilt houses became the name of a country of 900,000 square kilometres.
Useful: Many country names are travellers' impressions, not what the people called themselves.
Source: en.wikipedia.org