 The name Australia ( pronounced [ əˈstɹæɪljə , -liə ] in Australian English ) is derived from the Latin Terra Australis ( " southern land " ) a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times . The earliest recorded use of the word Australia in English was in 1625 in " A note of Australia del Espíritu Santo , written by Sir Richard Hakluyt " , published by Samuel Purchas in Hakluytus Posthumus , a corruption of the original Spanish name " Austrialia del Espíritu Santo " ( Southern Land of the Holy Spirit ) for an island in Vanuatu . The Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia ( Jakarta ) in 1638 , to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south . The first time that the name Australia appears to have been officially used was in a despatch to Lord Bathurst of 4 April 1817 in which Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledges the receipt of Matthew Flinders ' charts of Australia . On 12 December 1817 , Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted . In 1824 , the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia . 
