The first Westerner to see the atoll, in the mid- 1820s, was the Russian captain and explorer Otto von Kotzebue, who named the atoll Eschscholtz Atoll after the Russian scientist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz.
The first Westerner to see the atoll, in the mid- 1820s, was the Baltic German captain and explorer Otto von Kotzebue, sailing under the flag of the Russian Empire. He named the atoll Eschscholtz Atoll after another Baltic German, scientist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz.