2987: Myths of Atlas, Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean Feb 24, 2025

Unlike the name of the other oceans, the Atlantic Ocean is a very old name, coming from the early 6th century BC. The Atlantic Ocean is named for the Titan deity Atlas, who was supposedly forced to hold up the sky at the westernmost point of the world. This name is applied to the Atlas Mountains on the coast of Northwest Africa, though it is not clear if the mountains got the name from the ocean or the other way around. At the time, the line between not only contemporary history and mythology was blurred, as is the line between their contemporary history and history that was already ancient by the time of Ancient Greece, so it is not entirely clear whether the myth was developed to explain the name, or if the places were named actually as result of the myth. It is not clear where this word comes from, but the dominant theory is that it is from the Greek prefix ἁ- (‘being’) plus the descendant of the root *telh₂- meaning ‘bear; endure’, though it may not be of Greek origin. 

The original term was Atlantic Mountains, though the shorter name won out over time, and is used for most other regional terms like Atlas bears. The ocean, by contrast, was originally referred to as the Sea of Atlantis though this lost favor due to the associations with the mythical lost city of Atlantis.