Where does the name Costa Rica come from?

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Contrary to what most web sites say, Costa Rica was not so named by Christopher Columbus (aka Cristobal Colón in Spain).  From its discovery by Colon in 1502 to 1537 Costa Rica was part of the Veragua territory and ruled by 2 Governors, Diego de Nicuesa and Felipe Gutiérrez y Toledo.  In 1537 the Duchy of Veragua was created and was awarded to Luis Colón, Cristobal's grandson, by the crown after a successful legal battle. The Duchy of Veragua was located in what is now Panama and it was actually the Spaniards located in Panama and Nicaragua that named our area Costa Rica, in order to differentiate it from their own areas.  The first official usage of the name Costa Rica, is found in 1539 in official documents related to hearings over Panama.

Upon the creation of the Duchy in 1537 through 1540, the lands not belonging to it were ruled as Royal Veragua.  These lands were to the southeast and the northwest of the Duchy.  In 1540 the lands north of the Sixaola river were combined with another territory - Castilla de Oro (what today is the Nicoya Peninsula) - to form Nuevo Cartago y Costa Rica (New Carthage and Costa Rica), which in turn was awarded as a province of the Kingdom of Guatemala and governed from Antigua once that city was established in 1543.

Taken from Wikipedia articles:

Wikipedia contributors, "Veragua," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Veragua&oldid=334197917 (accessed April 29, 2010).

Wikipedia contributors, "Royal Veragua," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Veragua&oldid=301180108 (accessed April 29, 2010).

and originally from Oceano's "The Encylopedia of Costa Rica, Its History, Territory and People, Volume 2, page 186. (published 1992)