Was the Statue of Liberty named after the goddess Columbia?

Answer 1

The short answer is no, but in a way yes.

First, to clear up a few things that are common misconceptions. There is no statue named the Statue of Liberty. There is a National Park, located in NY Harbor, named The Statue of Liberty National Monument and Park, and at that site resides a statue titled Liberty Enlightening the World. Also, there is no historical goddess named Columbia. Columbia was/is the personification, or poetic depiction, of America and was sometimes referred to as, a goddess of freedom and liberty as American values. Columbia is also commonly considered to be a depiction of the Roman Goddess Libertas as America, and served as the inspiration for, and is the form depicted in, Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom that adorns the top of the dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in the District of Columbia

Which brings us back to the original question you asked. The statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was named in reference to, and as an embodiment of, the ideals of Libertas. However, the idea of a statue being in the form of a woman, and as a symbol of American freedom, was largely inspired by the Statue of Freedom, a depiction of Columbia, and of the symbolism of Columbia, which was a very prominent national symbol of the day and itself an embodiment of Libertas.