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Do not confuse the names '''Columba''', '''Colombia''', '''Columbia''', '''Colombo''' and '''Columbus'''. (Note particularly whether the second vowel is a '-u-' or an '-o-'.) There are also [[common noun]]s such as '''columbine''', '''coulomb'''. Most share a [[etymological root|root]] in the [[Latin]] ''columba'', 'a dove', many through the names of '''[[Saint Columba]]''', Christopher '''Columbus''', and C-A de '''Coulomb'''. 
*[[Saint]] '''Columba''' (c.521-597) was an Irish missionary who went to Scotland in 563. ('''Columba''' is the [[Latin]] form of a [[Gaelic]] name, ''Colum Cille'', 'Dove of the church'.) He converted the [[Pict]]s, and from the monastery he founded at [[Iona]], many other churches and communities. [[Lindisfarne]] was a '''Columban''' foundation.
**The [[adjective]] meaning 'to do with Columba' is '''columban'''. It can also be a [[noun]] meaning 'a disciple of St Columba'.
**Another Irish missionary was [[Saint]] '''Columbanus''', or in a more English form '''Columban'''. Columban, who may have been born around 543 and died in 615, founded monasteries in Gaul from 591.
*Christopher '''Columbus''' (born in the Italian state of Genoa as ''Christoffa Corombo'' in dialect;   ''Cristoforo Colombo'' in modern Italian; '''''Cristobal Colón''''' in his adopted country of Spain) was the first European known to cross the Atlantic. This he did with a flotilla of three small ships, the ''Pinta'' and ''Niáta'' and the biggest, the ''Santa Maria'' of 100 tons, in 1492. Many towns have been named after him, notably the capital city of the state of Ohio, birthplace of James Thurber.
**The name '''Colombia''' was given to a territory in South America which became independent of Spain in 1819. This broke up in 1830. The '''Republic of Colombia''' was eventually established in 1886. It lies between Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil on land, and has both Caribbean and Pacific coasts. (A variant '''Columbia''' of the name of this country has been recorded in English, but is to be avoided. Keep it to use with the meanings of '''Columbia''' below.)
**'''British Columbia''' is a province on the western seaboard of Canada. (It does not belong to Britain. Its name is to distinguish it from the half of the former Columbia District (named for the '''Columbia River''') which was ceded to the United States, and is now the state of Oregon.) It is conventionally abbreviated BC.
**The '''District of Columbia''' (abbreviated D.C.) is a territory in the USA belonging to no one state: the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. This is the land where the capital, Washington, is sited.
**'''Columbia''' is the usual, but informal, name given to '''Columbia University in the City of New York''', one of the [[Ivy League]] universities in the United States.
*Charles-Augustin de '''Coulomb''' (1736-1806), was a French physicist who formulated '''Coulomb's Law''' about the forces in electrostatic attraction and repulsion. It may be phrased "The magnitude of the electrostatic force between two point electric charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of each of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two charges."
*'''Colombo''' is the name of the capital city of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). According to [[Everett-Heath]], "''Kao-lan-pu'', ''Kalan-totta'', ''Kolambu/Kolamba''. The first name, whose meaning is unknown, is Chinese. The port then became known as ''Kalan-totta'' 'Kelani's Ferry', a reference to the nearby ferry. The Arabs then changed this to ''Kolambu'' which locally became ''Kolamba''. The first Europeans to settle in the 16th century were the Portuguese who believed that the Sinhalese name ''Kolamba'' was derived from ''kola'' 'leaves' and ''amba'' 'mango'. More credible is that ''kolamba'' was an old Sinhalese word meaning 'port', although this is by no means certain. Nevertheless, the Portuguese are said to have taken the opportunity to 'tweak' the name to Colombo in honour of Christopher Columbus, although he never came anywhere near here."

Some [[common noun]]s are:
**A '''columbarium''' is an (over-formal) name for a dove-house (dove-cote, or pigeon loft). A secondary meaning is archaeological: "A subterranean sepulchre, having in its walls niches or holes for cinerary urns; also one of these niches or recesses. "The niches for these, disposed round the walls and central supports, give the whole chamber the appearance of a dove-cote, whence its name of columbarium" (Maitland, Charles (1846) ''The Church in the Catacombs: a description of the Primitive Church of Rome, illustrated by its sepulchral remains'', 39 , cited in ''[[OED]]''). The [[plural]] of the [[Latin]] word '''columbarium''' is properly '''columbaria''' - see [[-um in Latin]].
**The '''coulomb''' is the unit of electrical quantity (the quantity of electricity conveyed in one second by a current of one ampère) in the International System of Units. It is named after C-A de '''Coulomb'''. See also [[Words Derived From Names of Persons]].
**'''columbium''' is a former name of the chemical element '''niobium'''.
**'''Columbine''' is the common English name for garden flowers of the genus ''aquilegia''.
**'''Columbine''' is the leading female character in the Italian ''Commedia dell'arte'', and its English successor, the Harlequinade. She is the female lead, beloved of Harlequin.
***It can also be an [[adjective]] meaning 'dove-like'.

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