Legendary Beginnings: How St. Kitts got (or didn’t get) its name.
By Katherine in Community, Nature and Environment, St. Kitts
While several theories on the origin of St. Kitts name are still debated 519 years after Christopher Columbus first spotted the island, one slightly fanciful premise lends the moniker the most color.
Legend has it that, in 1493, when Columbus sailed past the island for the first time, he found its distinct shape intriguing. Much as one might imagine a herd of elephants or a stately castle in a particular mass of clouds, the explorer conjured a recognizable figure in the island’s outline. To the active imagination of Columbus, it mimicked a silhouette of St. Christopher carrying the Christ child. So taken by the likeness, he christened the island St. Christopher. Nearly two centuries later, when Britain’s Sir Thomas Warner...