The story
From Bering + -ia, coined by the Swedish botanist Eric Hultén in 1937.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Beringia
Today it means: The Bering land bridge, a geographical phenomenon roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) wide (north to south) at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages; the land bridge previously occupying what is now the Bering Strait. Full definition →