Robert Owen Fisher, age 11, of Lancaster, Pa., for his question:

WHY ARE SO MANY PLACES NAMED 'COLUMBIA'?

The word "Columbia" is certainly a favorite when name giving time comes around. There are a half dozen rivers in North America with the name, including the major waterway located in the Pacific Northwest part of the United States and in southwestern Canada. Peaks, bays and capes have the name Columbia, and in Alaska there's even a glacier with the popular and famous name.

Twenty states have cities or towns named Columbia, including the one in South Carolina where the state capital is located. In addition, eight states have counties named Columbia. Minnesota and Washington have towns called

Columbia Heights, and there is a Columbia City in both Indiana and Oregon.

Long before the Revolutionary War started, many people felt that America should have been given the name of Columbia. The name honors the great explorer who opened North America for the world, Christopher Columbus.

During the war for independence, many poets in the 13 Colonies used the name Columbia to describe the new republic that was to become the United States.

First to use the word was Phillis Wheatley, a black slave poetess who lived in Massachusetts. She wrote a poem honoring George Washington that became very popular. The name Columbia was further popularized by poet Phillip Freneau after the war. The name first appeared in law in 1784 when King's College in New York City became Columbia College.

Many artists have put Columbia on canvas. They usually symbolically picture Columbia as a stately woman dressed in a flowing gown and holding an American Flag. Often she is also wearing a blue cape covered with white stars. A statue of Columbia, called the Statue of Freedom, is on top of the United States Capitol building. The building, of course, is built in a city that further honors the famous name: Washington, District of Columbia.

A country in the northwestern corner of South America was named after explorer Christopher Columbus. Using a slightly different spelling, the country is Colombia. Columbus never set foot in the country, although he did sail along its coast in 1502 when he was making his last visit to America.

Twenty one cities in the United States are named Columbus, including Ohio's state capital. A bronze statue of Christopher Columbus, standing 20 feet high, can be found in the Ohio city's City Hall Plaza. The beautiful statue was given to the citizens of Columbus, Ohio, by the citizens of Genoa, Italy, the explorer's birthplace.