The name "Antarctica" comes from the Greek word antarktiké (ἀνταρκτική), meaning "opposite to the Arctic." It was used to describe the southern polar region because it is located at the opposite end of the Earth from the Arctic (from "arktikós," which refers to the northern polar region, derived from "arktos," meaning "bear," a reference to the northern constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear).

The name was first used in antiquity to describe a hypothetical southern continent, but it became associated specifically with the landmass of Antarctica after its discovery and exploration.

The first confirmed landing on Antarctica is generally credited to the American sealer John Davis, who is believed to have set foot on the continent on February 7, 1821. Davis was a captain of a sealing ship, and his landing occurred near what is now the Antarctic Peninsula, although it wasn't widely acknowledged at the time.

However, other expeditions had sighted the continent earlier, such as those by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (Russian), Edward Bransfield (British), and Nathaniel Palmer (American) in the early 1820s, but these did not involve confirmed landings.