When and why did people living in the northern U.S. come to be called "Yankees"?

Answer 1

Yankee, the slang or colloquial name given to a citizen of the New England states in America, and less correctly applied, in familiar European usage, to any citizen of the United States. The term was also used by the British soldiers when referring to their opponents during the Revolutionary War, and during the Civil War by both the Confederates referring to the Federal troops and by the Southerners referring to the Northerners in general.

The origin of the name has given rise to much speculation. In Dr. William Gordon's History of the American War (1789) it is said to have been a cant word at Cambridge, Massachusettes as early as 1713, where it was used to express excellence. Dr. Gordon quotes an example of such an expression, "a Yankee good horse." Webster gives the earliest recorded use of its accepted meaning, from Oppression, A Poem by an American (Boston, 1765), "from meanness first this Portsmouth Yankee rose," and states that it is considered to represent the Indian pronunciation of Anglais, and was applied by the Massachusetts Indians to the English colonists. On the other hand, the Scots "yankie," (sharp or clever) would seem more probable as the origin of the sense represented in the Cambridge expression.

Other suggestions give a Dutch origin to the name. Thus, it may be a corruption of "Jankin," a diminutive form of the name Jan or John, and applied as a nickname to the English of Connecticut by the Dutch of New York. Skeat's Entomological Dictionary, (1910) quotes a Dutch captain's name, Yanky, from Dampier's Voyages, (1699) and accepts the theory that "Yankee" was formed from Jan and Kees, a familiar diminutive of Cornelius. ---- (From the Cambridge, England edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911.)

What is a Yankee?

To a citizen of the world, a Yankee is an American.

To an American, a Yankee is a Northerner.

To a Northerner, a Yankee is a New Englander.

To a New Englander, a Yankee is a Vermonter.

To a Vermonter, a Yankee is a person who eats pie for breakfast.

Answer 2

The origin of Yankee has been the subject of much debate, but the most likely source is the Dutch name Janke, meaning "little Jan" or "little John," a nickname that dates back to the 1680s. Perhaps because it was used as the name of pirates, the name Yankee came to be used as a term of contempt. It was used this way in the 1750s by General James Wolfe, the British general who secured British domination of North America by defeating the French at Quebec. The name may have been applied to New Englanders as an extension of an original use referring to Dutch settlers living along the Hudson River. Whatever the reason, Yankee is first recorded in 1765 as a name for an inhabitant of New England. The first recorded use of the term by the British to refer to Americans in general appears in the 1780s, in a letter by Lord Horatio Nelson, no less. Around the same time it began to be abbreviated to Yank. During the American Revolution, American soldiers adopted this term of derision as a term of national pride. The derisive use nonetheless remained alive and even intensified in the South during the Civil War, when it referred not to all Americans but to those loyal to the Union. Now the term carries less emotionexcept of course for baseball fans.

Answer 3

LOL, well I'am worse then a Yankee, I'am a d@*n Yankee, because I came, I saw, and bought a home and stayed.
Originally a nickname for people from New England, now applied to anyone from the United States. Even before the American Revolutionary War, the term Yankee was used by the British to refer, derisively, to the American colonists. Since the Civil War, American southerners have called all northerners Yankees. Since World War I, the rest of the world has used the term to refer to all Americans. 1
‡ The expression “Yankee, go home” reflects foreign resentment of American presence or involvement in other nations’ affairs. http://www.bartleby.com/59/14/yankee.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-yankee.html

Answer 4

It originally started with the Revolutionary War with the English calling the revolting colonists 'Yankees'. Now a-days I wouldn't consider it pie eaters from Vermont but anyone who supports that d@mned team from NY

Red Sox fan

Answer 5

Well, as a Vermonter who likes pie for breakfast...I'm not sure if I should be offended by the first answer? Us pie eating Vermonter's ain't so quick until we've had our coffee.