The Amazon is not just the river and the basin it is also,most importantly, the rainforest which belongs to 8 countries (9 if you count France). You have Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and French plus several creole languages there. Guess whose language is the best one for a common denomination?
That's an interesting point. I'm not saying you're wrong, just posing the following for thought: If a country/language picks a name for a place, that that place doesn't use, who owns it so to speak? That is, who 'owns' the word Germany? And by own I mean, makes some claim to it. It's hard for me as American perhaps because the 'lingua franca' is my native language. For example, I feel no sense of ownership of the words 'Estados Unitos', or Meiguo(sp?), and see them as belonging to other countries. Food for thought...
