<P> U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt first suggested using the name United Nations , to refer to the Allies of World War II , to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the latter 's three - week visit to the White House in December 1941 . Roosevelt suggested the name as an alternative to `` Associated Powers '' , a term the U.S. used in the First World War ( the U.S. was never formally a member of the Allies of World War I but entered the war in 1917 as a self - styled `` Associated Power '' ) . Churchill accepted the idea and cited Lord Byron 's use of the phrase `` United Nations '' in the poem Childe Harold 's Pilgrimage , which referred to the Allies at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 . </P>
<P> U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt first suggested using the name United Nations , to refer to the Allies of World War II , to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the latter 's three - week visit to the White House in December 1941 . Roosevelt suggested the name as an alternative to `` Associated Powers '' , a term the U.S. used in the First World War ( the U.S. was never formally a member of the Allies of World War I but entered the war in 1917 as a self - styled `` Associated Power '' ) . Churchill accepted the idea and cited Lord Byron 's use of the phrase `` United Nations '' in the poem Childe Harold 's Pilgrimage , which referred to the Allies at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 . </P>
where did the name united nations come from
where did the name united nations come from
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt