In which document did the name “United States of America” first appear?

The name “United States of America” first appeared in the Declaration of Independence.

The wording appears in the document’s title and in its concluding declaration that the united colonies were free and independent states. Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, during the American Revolution. The phrase helped identify the new political entity that claimed independence from Great Britain.

The name was not first created by the Constitution. The Constitution was drafted more than a decade later, in 1787, to establish a stronger federal government after the Articles of Confederation had proved inadequate. The Articles had also used the name officially, but they came after the Declaration.

The Declaration’s title uses the longer form “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Congress formally approved “United States of America” as the country’s name on September 9, 1776. America250 commemorates the independence announcement in which this national name first appeared.