What Was Christopher Columbus' Name?

There are, we have come to realize, many misconceptions about Christopher Columbus from when we learned about him in school. When he set sail, plenty of people believed the earth was round, and he did nothing to further prove the point. He never set foot in North America. He certainly wasn't a hero. And, it turns out, we don't even know his name. But he did sail the ocean blue in 1492, so there's that. While Columbus is associated with Spain, he was actually Italian, and born with the name Cristoforo Colombo. And his Spanish name was Cristobal Colon. Christopher Columbus is just an anglicized version of the original name. Oh, and as long as we're talking about stuff that wasn't the actual name, let's talk about Columbus' ships. Kids are taught in school that Columbus sailed the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. But the Nina and Pinta were actually nicknames, one of which was not the kind you'd want those aforementioned kids at school to be using. Nina is harmless, but Pinta means "the painted one" or "prostitute." We should really rework those textbooks.