What is the official name of the Statue of Liberty?

The Statue of Liberty’s official title is Liberty Enlightening the World.

The name was announced when the project was formally promoted in the 1870s. In French, the title is La Liberté éclairant le monde. The statue was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi as a robed woman holding a torch aloft, presenting liberty as a guiding light. English-speaking Americans soon popularized the shorter name “Statue of Liberty.”

Several familiar names are descriptive rather than official titles. “Lady Liberty” is a widely used nickname, while “Goddess of Liberty” describes the figure’s classical inspiration: the Roman goddess Libertas. The seven rays of her crown are often interpreted as representing the seven seas and seven continents.

Her tablet is inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI, the date of the United States Declaration of Independence. She also stands on a broken chain and shackle, a symbol of liberation. The monument’s formal title is therefore easy to confuse with its everyday name, but “Liberty Enlightening the World” is the canonical answer to this question.