"Indian" comes from Italian/Spanish "gente in dios" (God-like people)? False etymology?

Wikipedia:

The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindush, equivalent to the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ἰνδοί), which translates as "The people of the Indus".

The geographical term Bharat (Bhārat; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət]), which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. It is a modernisation of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which traditionally referred to the Indian subcontinent and gained increasing currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India.

Hindustan ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] is a Middle Persian name for India. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then. Its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety. Currently, the name may refer to either the northern part of India or the entire country.

I think I found something interesting about this story. This is found in the Wikipedia article titled Native American name controversy.

First of all the article says about Columbus:

When he landed in the Antilles, Columbus referred to the resident peoples he encountered there as "Indians" reflecting his purported belief that he had reached the Indian Ocean.

Now here's an interesting part further down:

Alternative etymology

In the late 20th century, some American public figures suggested that the origin of the term was not from a confusion with India, but from the Spanish expression En Dios, meaning "in God", or a similar one in Italian. Proponents of this idea include the American Indian activist Russell Means; the author Peter Matthiessen, author of In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, a view of American Indian history through the life and trial of Lakota activist Leonard Peltier; and the comedian George Carlin.

In his book The Wind Is My Mother, the Muscogee writer Bear Heart (Nokus Feke Ematha Tustanaki) wrote: "When Columbus found the natives here, they were gentle people who accepted him, so Columbus wrote in his journal, 'These are people of God' ("una gente in Dios"). Later the 's' was dropped and Indio became Indian." However, as the writer David Wilton noted in his book Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends, this phrase does not appear in any of Columbus' writing. Wilton also says that since Greek and Roman times, more than a millennium before the voyages of Columbus, many European languages used variations of the term "Indian" to describe the peoples of the Indian subcontinent. Alternative etymology

So these proponents espousing this curious etymology include the three people listed above. One of them was a Native American activist. This is interesting, but the evidence does point to this being an urban legend.

According to a post from three years ago on a Reddit thread, this etymology goes back to Peter Matthiessen's 1984 book Indian Country.

Indian is probably derived from the Latin word for Indigenous.

However, Indios doesn't seem to appear until well after the Americas were discovered. It most likely evolved as a play on words that doubles for "under god".

The Roman Catholic church believes God The Father is not only the father of Christ, but of the universe and therefore all humans as well.

That conflicts with other Roman Latin concepts that say different Gens had different Immortal fathers. The older mythology clearly made it to the Americas and is still reflected in the expression "Latin blood".

A while ago in January The Black Hebrew Israelites were speaking/shouting/proselytizing to surrounding people at Lincoln Memorial. The speaker claimed that the word "Indian" means "savage". A member from the crowd approached the speakers, claiming he was a historian, and that "Indian" is a Spanish word meaning "God-like people".

There is no qualification required for speaking near the Lincoln Memorial. In general, people do no research at all before accepting explanations, Your speaker was one such.

[George Carlin said] More likely, the word Indian comes from Columbus's description of the people he found here. He was an Italian, and did not speak or write very good Spanish, so in his written accounts he called the Indians "Una gente in Dios". A people in God. In God. In Dios. Indians.

George Carlin did no research either. It is highly unlikely as an origin.

OED:

Indian:

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French indien (French indien ) of, from, or belonging to India (c1270 or earlier in Anglo-Norman; also as noun (c1265 in Old French as yndiien )),

of, from, or belonging to (any part) of the Americas (1588; after Indes : see Indies n.) < Inde Ind n. + -ien -ian suffix.

Compare Spanish indiano (adjective and noun) of, from, or belonging to India (1250),

of, from, or belonging to (any part) of the Americas (1550 or earlier),

Portuguese indiano (adjective and noun) of, from, or belonging to India (c1539 as adjective), Italian indiano (adjective and noun) of, from, or belonging to India (c1336 as adjective),

[You will recall that the natives of S. America are also called "Indians" and there are a group of islands called "The West Indies".]

of, from, or belonging to (any part) of the Americas (c1495 as adjective). With use as adjective compare Indic adj.1 and Indiary adj. With use as noun compare Indio n. Compare also Injun n., Ingin n.