# Why do people from U.S call themselves Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 29, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250 "2012-10-29T19:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/21 "2012-10-29T21:28:41Z")
And hey, we call that dude “Captain America”, not “Captain USA” ---
**Author:** ![hberi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@hberi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hberi)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/22 "2012-10-29T21:37:19Z")
I moved to Costa Rica sometime ago and learned pretty quick to say I am from the States, not America. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/23 "2012-10-29T21:41:56Z")
While I might say I’m an American, I would never say I was “from America”. That just sounds odd. I would say I’m from “the U.S.”. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/24 "2012-10-29T21:44:27Z")
It’s what everyone else calls us, too. Well, one of the politer terms. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/25 "2012-10-29T21:52:18Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Because United Statesians just sounds stupid. Or [USAian](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=usaian)/[USian](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=USian). Reminds me of an exchamge from Larry Niven’s _Flatlander_, where “flatlander” is the common slang for someone from Earth. “Why are we called flatlanders?” “Because ‘Earthian’ is a clumsy term.” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/26 "2012-10-29T22:13:35Z")
> [@hberi](#): > > I moved to Costa Rica sometime ago and learned pretty quick to say I am from the States, not America. So, we could call ourselves Staters. Not to be confused with **Taters**. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/27 "2012-10-29T23:23:13Z")
> [@hberi](#): > > I moved to Costa Rica sometime ago and learned pretty quick to say I am from the States, not America. That could just as easily mean you were from the United States of Mexico. As I said, language is not necessarily logical. Words mean whatever people agree that they mean. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/28 "2012-10-30T00:09:01Z")
> [@Mentol](#): > > If America is the continent, . . . If we are discussing odd twists of language, this is a clear example. Europeans, (those people on the west end of Eurasia that think they actually live on a separate continent), treat the separate continents of North America and South America as a single continent. (That is why the Europeans who re-established the Olympics picked five rings for their symbol: they gave themselves a separate ring, then gave the rest of the Eurasians a ring for Asia, Africans a ring, and Australians a ring, while giving all the people on the two continents to their west a single ring.) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/29 "2012-10-30T00:17:17Z")
Good answers all. I’ll just add that early-20th-C architect Frank Lloyd Wright advocated for “Usonians”. It didn’t stick, except as a name for one of his own design styles/periods. And to the poster who lives in Costa Rica – that “Los Estados” thing is definitely a Central Americanism. A colleague who had worked in Central America later worked with me in Mexico, and whenever he said “Los Estados”, none of the locals knew what he was talking about – in Mexico, you’d say “Los Estados Unidos”, or “El Norte”. I’m sure this is partly because Mexico has states, too, while Central American countries have provinces or departments. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/30 "2012-10-30T00:21:08Z")
> [@Mentol](#): > > 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? No. I’m Canadian, not American. I don’t live in anyplace I would call America; I live in a country called Canada, which is located on a continent called North America. I guess I’m North American, but why would I ever need that term? Americans have been called that since before the USA was an independent country, actually. “America” has had two meanings in English for at least 250 years; on one hand it means “the continents of North America and South America,” but in the 18th century it also meant “the British colonies of North America.” A person from Virginia in 1755 would have been considered an “American” by someone from England. That meaning of America and American graduated to mean the independent country. It’s English. I don’t understand why people have so much trouble with the fact that the same word can have one that more meaning when they have no trouble with “bear,” “dog” and “lead” all meaning different things depending on context. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/31 "2012-10-30T00:21:27Z")
I think we got the trademark on the name America(tm…arr) because we beat everyone else to it on continent(s) by at least a century. In some cases two. (We’ve been ‘Americans’ for over two hundred years, so it’s not exactly a new fad…and we’ve sort of worn the rough edges off of it by now and gotten used to it) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/32 "2012-10-30T00:29:13Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > We call our nation “America”, therefore we are “Americans”. Canadians are very well aware that we are also part of the American continent, but you will never hear a Canadian refer to himself as American. The connotation is well-understood by all. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Bisector](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@Black\_Bisector](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Bisector)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/33 "2012-10-30T00:34:54Z")
Some cool cat tried to get us to call ourselves “USers” but it never caught on sadly. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/34 "2012-10-30T00:43:53Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Some people do consider the Americas to be a single continent, though. It was until we sliced it in two in Panama. 😉 > [@Mentol](#): > > I am spanish, and we sometimes say “estadounidense” (from “Estados Unidos de America”)… Estadounidense? I don’t speak Spanish but I encounter it regularly and I’ve not seen that ending anywhere except in bad scientific Latin, but my wife does claim that Spanish is still pretty much Vulgate Latin. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/35 "2012-10-30T00:49:12Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] Estadounidense? I don’t speak Spanish but I encounter it regularly and I’ve not seen that ending anywhere except in bad scientific Latin, but my wife does claim that Spanish is still pretty much Vulgate Latin. [/QUOTE] It’s sort of like saying Unitedstatesian. Never heard anyone say this unless they were being derogatory or intentionally trying to act like they were from the backwoods. MMV of course. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/36 "2012-10-30T00:49:52Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > It was until we sliced it in two in Panama. 😉 > Estadounidense? I don’t speak Spanish but I encounter it regularly and I’ve not seen that ending anywhere except in bad scientific Latin, but my wife does claim that Spanish is still pretty much Vulgate Latin. It’s a very common word in written Spanish, at least in Mexico (and, apparently, Spain). You’re right that the “-ense” ending isn’t really a productive suffix anymore, but neither does it have the “Australopithecine” scientific connotations it does in English. Remember that Spanish’s core vocabulary is mainly Latin-derived, not its “learned” (two syllables) vocabulary as in English. XT: In my experience, it’s the very opposite of “backwoods”. It’s most common on government forms and such. “Backwoods” would be “gabacho” or “yanqui” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/37 "2012-10-30T00:50:14Z")
> [@Black\_Bisector](#): > > Some cool cat tried to get us to call ourselves “USers” but it never caught on sadly. His post was his cite… ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/38 "2012-10-30T01:33:12Z")
“Estadounidense”(_) is actually quite common in Latin America in formal speech or when you want to make a point of being precise, BUT in informal everyday usage “Norteamericano” is commonly used (which yeah, sort of leaves the Mexicans and Canadians in the chopped-liver aisle, but even Mexicans use it) and colloquially will often just say “Americanos” and let people figure it out by context. What IS a common practice, though, is that though the group-noun and adjective may be commonly “(norte)americanos”, people will try to not refer to_ the country\* as “America”, that’s where they draw the line. (\* “-ense” is a perfectly regular, if not prevalent, ending for _gentilicios_, the noun/adjective describing place of origin or location: Estadounidense, Canadiense, Costarricense, Londinense, Viequense…) I suppose the USA-ers became known – _in English_, first – as “the Americans” because at the time the country was founded, to the other large concentration of English-speakers (those in Britain), these guys were indeed most of “the Americans” of the Anglosphere, as opposed to the British, and for some time to follow, they were THE one such anglophone sovereign nation in the Americas. So in English it became standard for USA-ers to be just plain “Americans”, there is no error of standard usage – in English. Maybe if the Spanish lands had been able to get their act together early on they may have been able to make a more convincing argument about how “hey, no way, we are all Americans, get yourselves a real name.” Did not happen. But OTOH, why should any nation have to defer to that \*others \*are uncomfortable with how they address themselves? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/39 "2012-10-30T01:38:15Z")
[QUOTE=JKellyMap] XT: In my experience, it’s the very opposite of “backwoods”. It’s most common on government forms and such. “Backwoods” would be “gabacho” or “yanqui” or something like that. [/QUOTE] Well, like I said, MMV. Where my family comes from (Senora), the only time I’ve heard that term used in regular speech is either someone being derogatory or acting like they were hicks from the backwoods (the key here is ACTING). Maybe in other places Spanish is spoken it’s used in ordinary speech differently…and, honestly, I’ve never had much to do with even the local government in Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250/40 "2012-10-30T03:56:35Z")
I can only think of two other countries whose only name describes where they are and how they are organized. In one instance, they refer to themselves as Central Africans and in the other as South Africans. We USA-ers are squarely within the established norm for this sort of thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-u-s-call-themselves-americans/639250.md?page=3)