Who is the female personification of the United States of America?

Columbia is the female personification of the United States. It was also a historical name applied to the Americas and to the New World. The association has given rise to the names of many American places, objects, institutions and companies; such as: Columbia University, the District of Columbia (U.S. capital), "Hail, Columbia" (unofficial national and official vice-presidential anthem), as well as the ship 'Columbia Rediviva', which would give its name to the Columbia River. Images of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World, erected in 1886) largely displaced personified Columbia as the female symbol of the United States by around 1920, although Lady Liberty was seen as an aspect of Columbia.

Columbia is a New Latin toponym, in use since the 1730s with reference to the Thirteen Colonies which would go on to form the United States. It originated from the name of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and from the ending -ia, common in Latin names of countries (paralleling Britannia, Gallia, and others).

The earliest type of personification of the Americas, seen in European art from the 16th century onwards, reflected the tropical regions in South and Central America from which the earliest travellers reported back. These were most often used in sets of female personifications of the Four Continents. America was depicted as a woman who, like Africa, was only partly dressed, typically in bright feathers, which invariably formed her headress.