Why are people from the north of America called Yankees?

Question

And when it is said is it meant as an insult.

Answer 1

Its a mockery of those who fought against the British for independance sung by the Britsh Army.

"Yankee doodle went to town riding on a poney,
Stuck a feather in his cap an called it maccaroni"

A maccaroni was an English gent who wore funnie clothes make up an wig etc.

Answer 2

WORD HISTORY 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 emotion—except of course for baseball fans.

Answer 3

The origins of the term are uncertain. It was used in a different sense in England by 1683. In 1758 British General James Wolfe referred to the New England soldiers under his command as Yankees: "I can afford you two companies of Yankees." The term as used by Brits was thick with contempt, as shown by the cartoon from 1775 ridiculing Yankee soldiers.[4] The "Yankee and Pennamite" war was a series of clashes over land titles in Pennsylvania, 1769ff, in which "Yankee" meant the Connecticut claimants.

Linguists have rejected numerous theories that the word derived from an Indian word. [5] Many people from the Netherlands moved to the US and New Amsterdam which now is New York. Very popular Dutch names are Jan and Kees. You pronounce these names as "yan" (a as in "done") and "kase". Put these popular names together and you get yankeese which pronounces the same as yankee.; or it was a term used by Dutch settlers in upstate New York referring to the New Englanders who were migrating to their region. [6]

Answer 4

It started during the civil war...the north was yankees & south was rebels better known as the union & confederates.

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.


EDIT : lol can't believe someone gave me a thumbs down for a quote directly from Wiki....lol

Answer 6

A Yankee is the technical name for the little string that is attached to a feminine hygiene product.....tee hee..

Answer 7

Not an insult to me
I bleive we would have to ask Abe Lincoln, and he's dead