On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress made the name “United States of America” official for the new nation that had declared independence two months earlier. It was a practical administrative step rather than a dramatic announcement, but it locked in the wording that has defined the country ever since.

Background: From “United Colonies” to independent states

By mid-1776 the thirteen British colonies had already been cooperating for more than a year through the Continental Congress. Official documents, commissions, and even Continental currency commonly used the phrase “United Colonies” (sometimes “United Colonies of North-America”). That language still implied a collection of colonies rather than fully sovereign states.

The shift began with Richard Henry Lee’s resolution, introduced on June 7, 1776, and adopted on July 2. It declared:

“That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States…”

Two days later, on July 4, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted mainly by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration already used both phrases: it opened as “the unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America” and later referred to “these United Colonies.” Jefferson’s earlier rough draft had even more prominently featured “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” The National Archives generally credits the Declaration with first putting the full formal name into official use.

By September the Declaration had been printed, signed, and sent to Britain. Fighting was underway in New York and elsewhere. Congress treated independence as an accomplished fact and needed consistent language for commissions, military orders, and other official papers.

The September 9 resolution

The change itself was brief and tucked into a routine session that also dealt with army pay and other wartime business. The fifth resolution of the day read:

“That in all continental commissions, and other instruments, where, heretofore, the words ‘United Colonies’ have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the ‘United States.’”

“Stile” was the 18th-century spelling of “style.” From that point forward, official documents dropped “Colonies” and used “United States.” The full phrase “United States of America” was already circulating and soon became standard.

Why the wording mattered

The founders wanted language that reflected political reality. “Colonies” suggested dependence on a distant empire. “States” signaled that each former colony was now a sovereign entity joining a union. Thomas Paine had already popularized similar phrasing in Common Sense earlier that year. The September resolution simply made the new terminology official and uniform.

The name was later written into the Articles of Confederation (adopted 1777, ratified 1781), whose first article states: “The Stile of this Confederacy shall be ‘The United States of America.’” The 1787 Constitution continued the same style.

The September 9 action was not a founding moment on the scale of July 4, but it completed the linguistic break with colonial status and gave the new country the name it has used for 250 years.

This is AI Grok generated, not me. I just asked the question. I am having a period of writers’ block.