# Parisienne, Mocovite, Tangerine **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669 "2006-06-06T21:12:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![willkleiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e274bd/32.png) [@willkleiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willkleiner)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/1 "2006-06-06T21:12:13Z")
Help me please! Citizens of particular places are refered to as, say, New Yorkers or Los Angelinos. In fact, if you hail from Tangiers, you get to be known as a Tangerine! Waht I want to know, (NEED to know) is how are these derived? Is there a commitee? I used to live in a town called Sebastopol. People nearly came to blows over Sebastopolers, Sebastopolites, or my favorite, Sebastopolitans. Tragicly, the issue was never resolved. Also- what is that part of speech called? Citizen moniker? Oh Teeming Millions–Help me! A Benician ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/2 "2006-06-06T21:46:15Z")
For American places, I am personally guessing that it is mostly the locals who do it. (See [meme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme)) “Seattlites” for instance seemed to be the commonly agreed upon term in my last town, though every once in a while you would get a “Wait what are we?” and then a couple ideas would come out, and Seattlite would win again. Living, now, in Tokyo though…no idea. Tokyoer? I haven’t had any other whiteys to meme it out with. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/3 "2006-06-06T21:59:40Z")
> [@Sage Rat](#): > > Living, now, in Tokyo though…no idea. Tokyoer? I haven’t had any other whiteys to meme it out with. Tokyoite is fairly accepted terminology. When I lived in Japan I used to do one class on names for people from particiluar cities. I mentioned the strange ones like Novocastrian and Mancunian. I was going to start a thread on this. As it seems strange that some places do not have these names for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/4 "2006-06-06T22:04:18Z")
When I lived in Michigan we were known as “Michiganders.” There was a movement that people actually paid attention to trying to get that _officially_ changed, like through legislation or proclamation or some such nonsense, to “Michiganians.” Don’t remember how that turned out. > [@willkleiner](#): > > Also- what is that part of speech called? Citizen moniker? Depends on how it’s used. Could be a noun, could be an adjective, could be something else too most likely. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/5 "2006-06-06T22:16:24Z")
An old friend of my dad’s wintered in Venice, Florida. Instead of being Venetians, “Hey, we’re old, not blind,” he said the locals were Venisons. A little further north, folks from Tampa joke that they are Tampons. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/6 "2006-06-07T08:14:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Also- what is that part of speech called? Citizen moniker? It’s called a proper adjective. (curtsey. exit) ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/7 "2006-06-07T08:15:50Z")
No it’s not. Sorry. I need sleep. I take back my curtsey. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/8 "2006-06-07T10:54:39Z")
It’s called a [demonym](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym). There’s an incomplete but obsessively-close list [url=“[http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Demonyms%20of%20the%20World](http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Demonyms%20of%20the%20World)”]here. Most are intuitive, but things get funny when you get down to the city and state levels (e.g. “Bay Stater” for Massachussetts, and “Glaswegian” for Glasgow). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/9 "2006-06-07T12:00:38Z")
I’m from Altoona, Pennsylvania. We’re Altoids… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parisienne-mocovite-tangerine/359669/10 "2006-06-07T12:30:58Z")
> [@willkleiner](#): > > Waht I want to know, (NEED to know) is how are these derived? Common usage, usually influenced by euphony.