Why is the Bering Strait named after Vitus Bering?

The Bering Strait is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish captain in the Russian navy who led an expedition through the passage in 1728.12

While the Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnyov had actually sailed through the strait in 1648, his findings remained largely unknown in official archives for decades. Consequently, Tsar Peter I commissioned Bering in the 1720s to determine the geography of the region and whether Asia and North America were connected by land. Bering’s 1728 voyage successfully navigated the strait, and his subsequent contributions to mapping and exploration solidified his association with the waterway.321