His first name was neither Christopher, nor Pedro -- he was baptized "William". In addition, he was not born with the last name Scotto, nor did he adopt the name Columbus -- throughout his life he used his family name of "Shakespeare". Lastly, the man had a pathological fear of boats and never went to sea. He made his living writing plays in England.
Hope this clears up the mystery.
All these years I thought he was a Scandnavian who sailed west and ran into Greenland.