I am from Europe and I have asked that myself several times after watching a movie.
If America is the continent, why do people from U.S call themselves “Americans”, as opposite to “Mexicans” or “Canadians”?, shouldn’t they also be Americans? (I am leaving aside the countries in Central and South America, but I guess the reasoning would be the same).
I know that languages are arbitrary and I don’t ask this to offend anybody or start a discussion, I am just curious. When I am asked my nationality, I would never think about saying “European”.
Mexico’s full name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos, or United Mexican States, while the full name of the US is United States of America. Thus I think you can see why we might shorten that to America and call ourselves Americans.
In common usage, ‘North America’ and ‘South America’ are the continents.
Because, first, that’s the common usage of the term (that’s how language works), and, second, we have no other demonym. What else could we call ourselves?
Historically, the people in what is now the US were called Americans, because they lived in the American colonies*, even before the revolution. It’s just a continuation of that same label.
*This is what they were called collectively, if you didn’t need or want to divide them further into Virginian, New Yorker, etc.
The full name of the country is the United States of America. Americans comes naturally from that just as Mexicans comes from Estados Unidos Mexicanos and Brazilians comes from República Federativa do Brasil and a hundred other examples.
In addition, America was the name given to the continents 500 years ago. For all that time people spoke of going to the Americas and called various people who lived there Americans. The rebelling colonists in the English colonies in the 18th century used Americans as a general term to distinguish themselves from the English who were seen as oppressors. Since they were the first to declare themselves an independent country and became the dominant culture, the name they called themselves stuck.
It can cause confusion, especially with people from other countries in Central and South America. They tend to call people from the U.S. norteamericanos, even though that’s not a unique identifier.
It’s tradition and cultural power, yes, but it comes from a very sensible place.
There could be logical reasons why Mexicans or Canadians should also be considered Americans, but as often needs to be pointed out in threads like this – language is not logic. If I said that my friend Frank is an American, nobody would think that he is a Canadian. In English, the word “American” always means someone from the USA.
I am spanish, and we sometimes say “estadounidense” (from “Estados Unidos de America”), which is long and complicated, so half the times we end up with Americans as well, which is of course shorter and easier, so I understand its logic.
It’s just that sometimes it sounds a bit… generic. When you are asked your nationality in official papers and such, do you write down “American”? I mean, is that the “oficial” name in english for anybody born in the U.S.A?
I don’t recall the last time I was asked to fill out “Nationality” on an official form. Country of Origin, Country of Residence, or just Country yes but not Nationality.
And if you want to get technical about it, Mexicans call people from the U.S. “norteamericanos” and North American is also the preferred term for grouping U.S./Canada and/or Mexican residents.
Similarly, people from the United Arab Emirates are (supposedly) called Emirati. That’s not really fair if you’re from a non-UAE emirate, but them’s the breaks.
It’s an oversight. But then, for the first half-century of the republic’s existence, the plan was to conquer the whole continent. The United States of America was the only independent country on the American continent at first, and it was supposed to “liberate” the rest of America from the Old World empires. So in that context, it made a kind of sense.
Technically, the ethnic demonyms are “Yank” (more general, and mostly applied to us by non-Yanks) and “gringo” (for anglos, not conquered hispanics).
