United States Virgin Islands

Home> Countries> North America> United States Virgin Islands

Country Name

The United States Virgin Islands (USVI), officially the Virgin Islands of the United States of America, and also called the American Virgin Islands or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Location

The islands are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States.

The islands are part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles to the east of Puerto Rico and west of the British Virgin Islands.

Capital

Charlotte Amalie.

Reason for naming the country

The islands were named "Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes" by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after the legend of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. The name was later shortened to "the Virgin Islands".

Flag

The flag of the United States Virgin Islands was adopted on May 17, 1921.

It is composed of a golden eagle on a white background with a shield in the center. The shield is blue on top and then red and white striped on the rest of it. The eagle holds an olive branch in its left claws and three blue arrows in the right.

The letters V and I in blue are under each of the eagle’s outstretched wings.

The three arrows represent the three major islands, which are Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix.

The colors incorporated into the flag all have meaning.