# What are you? (Ethnicity...) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2008, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152 "2008-07-03T03:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/61 "2008-07-03T17:35:02Z")
Predominantly English, generous helpings of Irish and Scottish, and I’m 1/16th Prussian thanks to a great great grandmother whose parents hailed from an area that I believe is now part of Poland. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/62 "2008-07-03T17:48:17Z")
On my Dad’s side: Mostly Irish with a little Chinese and African tossed in. On my Mom’s side: Scottish, Norwegian, German and English. I’m a green-eyed blonde with medium skin tones and look just about as white bread as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/63 "2008-07-03T19:29:19Z")
[QUOTE=Misnomer] In college I started wearing a Claddagh ring, and I still wear it every day, but I haven’t worn my Italian horn (which each grandchild got when they were born) in years. [/QUOTE] What’s an Italian horn, please? ---
**Author:** ![BrknButterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@BrknButterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrknButterfly)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/64 "2008-07-03T19:36:47Z")
Half English, Half Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/65 "2008-07-03T19:37:33Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] What’s an Italian horn, please? [/QUOTE] eta: Never mind, I [googled it](http://www.luckymojo.com/corno.html). Here’s the most embarassing confession you’ll read today- I’ve seen those and honestly thought they were silver/gold plated shark’s teeth or [raccoon penis bones (work safe)](http://www.americanheadhunters.com/jpg/raccoonos.jpg), both of which have been worn as amulets and or fads upon occasion. :o (I think it was Freud who said “Sometimes a coon’s little fellow is just a little cornicello”.) ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/66 "2008-07-03T19:48:55Z")
3/4 Irish, 1/4 French-Canadian. Whenever I fill out documents where it asks me my race, I always say “Celtic.” ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/67 "2008-07-03T19:54:36Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Here’s the most embarassing confession you’ll read today- I’ve seen those and honestly thought they were silver/gold plated shark’s teeth or [raccoon penis bones (work safe)](http://www.americanheadhunters.com/jpg/raccoonos.jpg) [/QUOTE] No worries: when my brother, cousins, and I were kids we used to think they looked like sperm. 😃 As an aside, I think this is the first time in my 4 years on the Dope that I’ve ever casually referenced something that made someone else say, “Huh?” I guess it was bound to happen eventually! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/68 "2008-07-03T20:05:19Z")
The maternal grandmother who helped raise me claimed to have a bit of German blood, but was mostly Scotch-Irish. (The correct term is now Scots-Irish; that is, Ulster Presbyterian.) My maternal grandfather was of Irish descent. Since he died about the time I was born, I don’t have the details. Famine Era or a bit later, probably. My father’s parents both came from East Galway. They met & married over here. No, I don’t tan! ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/69 "2008-07-03T20:22:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Eastern European Jewish. I understand the Jewish ethnicity thing, but at some point there had to be the an eastern European country that contributed to the ethnicity, right? I’m Belarusian and Jewish for as far back as I know. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/70 "2008-07-03T20:30:37Z")
[QUOTE=Lakai] I understand the Jewish ethnicity thing, but at some point there had to be the an eastern European country that contributed to the ethnicity, right? I’m Belarusian and Jewish for as far back as I know. [/QUOTE] Not quite sure what you mean- in terms of traditions, foods, customs, etc my parents had more in common with Jews in other Eastern European countries than the non-Jewish Polish people who lived down the road from them. The Polish culture, _per se_, contributed very little to our ethnic identity. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/71 "2008-07-03T20:33:44Z")
My mother is second generation Italian. My father was Irish/Scottish on his mother’s side and German on his father’s side. He grew up in an Irish neighborhood and always identified more with his Irish heritage. So of course I have a German last name. The one part of my heritage I least identify with. I think it is cool that I have a [clan](http://clan-maccallum-malcolm.3acres.org/) but to be honest it is a small part of my ancestry. I consider myself more Italian than anything. But that Scottish part of my family has been in America the longest and supposedly I am related to Abraham Lincoln through that branch. > [@](#): > > But when do you Americans consider your ancestors to be American? The minute they got here. That still doesn’t change their heritage. My Italian relatives are much different than my Irish/German relatives. But we are all Americans. I was stationed in Germany with my German last name and I maybe got one or two comments about my name. To them I was an American, no matter what kind of last name I have. ---
**Author:** ![Elysium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Elysium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysium)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/72 "2008-07-03T20:39:30Z")
I am almost 100% Irish. My mother’s grandparents both came over on the same boat from the Old Country (County Cork), and my dad’s family is Irish with a bit of British and Portuguese. But my grandpa’s genes are strong buggers and I tend to just consider myself Irish. I am pasty white with a broad jaw, which means I can do a sweet Conan O’Brien impression. I think we might be distantly related, that’s how much the jaw and hair look like my family’s. My husband it 100% Italian. His mom is a blonde, blue-eyed Northern Italian and his dad is a swarthy dark Southern Italian. He takes after his dad. So I’ll consider our kids 1/2 Italian, 1/2 Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/73 "2008-07-03T20:53:32Z")
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen] Not quite sure what you mean- in terms of traditions, foods, customs, etc my parents had more in common with Jews in other Eastern European countries than the non-Jewish Polish people who lived down the road from them. The Polish culture, _per se_, contributed very little to our ethnic identity. [/QUOTE] I guess I don’t think you can live in a country and not absorb some of its culture. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/74 "2008-07-03T21:28:47Z")
I’m roughly 50% Scottish, 25% Irish, and the rest a mish-mash of English, German, some flavor of Scandinavian (Norweigan, I think) and Russian. Or, as I like to think of it, standard Northern European mongrel. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/75 "2008-07-04T00:16:50Z")
1/2 Serbian ( paternal ), the rest a mishmash of mostly Anglo-Welsh w/purpotedly some “Black Dutch” ( which could be anything, but was probably some variant on Germanic ). ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/76 "2008-07-04T00:39:59Z")
Native American. I was born here. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/77 "2008-07-04T00:55:51Z")
On my father’s side, European-looking Jews from Latvia, Russia, and Belarus, and a German surname adopted upon immigration. On my mother’s side, the paternal line is Scottish (so the family goes in for kilt wearing and so on) but most of the ancestors are Old White American (which, if you take it far enough back, includes some Huguenots, Lewis of Lewis and Clark, Peter Stuyvesant’s sister, and someone on the Mayflower) Then there’s that one branch of my mother’s family that came from somewhere in Virginia and had a curiously dark coloring which I have inherited. They’re officially Anglos, but there’s long been talk . . . ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/78 "2008-07-04T00:57:02Z")
If our family records are correct, I am 100% Korean. Our records go back to the late 14th century, so who knows what we’d find if we went further back? ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/79 "2008-07-04T01:05:36Z")
Prussian (don’t know what area), German, Polish, Irish, Yugoslavian, Luthuanian, English, and Native American. Seems that my ancestors weren’t really picky. I don’t know the percentages, though. I don’t feel particularly strong to any heritage. Too many countries to try to celebrate them all. I do like festivals and the food, though. I have a strong German/Polish nose and the traditional drinking sure seems to run rampant in my families. ---
**Author:** ![sugar\_and\_spice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@sugar\_and\_spice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugar_and_spice)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152/80 "2008-07-04T01:14:55Z")
German one one side, either Slovak or Polish on the other. It depends on which of my uncles you ask. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-ethnicity/455152.md?page=5)