Americans?

Question

why is it that U.S. citizens call themselves "americans" like they're the only people in america. there's also brazilians, argentinans, colombians, and all of them are also americans. to make matters worse some call themselves "north americans" as if they were the only people in north america which is not the case, canadians and mexicans are north americans as well. and what bothers me the most is that the rest of the world thinks like that too.

i made this sound like i wasn't american, but indeed i am. sorry for making it sound that way

unlike how "thetruth_00" thinks, i am not a white-hater at all, that would be racist. i'm simply against calling ourselves americans as if disregarding other americans from other countries, i'm not against any races.

Answer 1

Hard to come up with another term for Americans because of the name of the country United States of America.

But actually the term Americans was first used by the British during the early 1700's before it was even called the U.S. Back then it was referred to as the America's and the British referred to the colonists as Americans for a lack of what to call those who were living in the colonies.

The term seemed to stick and the rest is history. Go anywhere in the world and say you're from "the states" and see how long it takes to here the people of that country refer to you as an American.

Answer 2

I think we call ourselves Americans because that is the name that flows the best. Our country is the United States of America...I am not sure what else we would use...Uniteders?Staters? USers? I could go on, but you get the picture. For the record, I do not know any Americans that call themselves "North Americans"..and when I would visit cousins in Ireland and England...their friends would call my sister and I " The Americans"...we never referred to ourselves that way...

Answer 3

Well it is a far more convenient term than 'people of the United States of America'.
I call myself an Australian rather than a person from the Commonwealth of Australia, with blatant disregard for the twenty or so people of the Principality of Hutt River.

Answer 4

Because the country is named "The United States of America" that's why. What would you suggest? Should we call ourselves Statians? Unitedians? USAians? USAers? Those people who live in the middle? MiddleLivers? English-speaking but not British people? Mongrels? Mutts?

Answer 5

They call themselves American because that's what you call some one who is born in America or takes an oath to become an American by choice, I live in Canada but I'm from Australia i consider myself Australian and will always be Australian even if i reside in another country

Answer 6

Well, in our defense our country is actually called the United States of America. We are also part of a larger continent called North America, but when we call ourselves Americans, we are referring to the country by that name.

What do you suggest we call ourselves? "Statesians"?

Answer 7

I consider all those people to be Americans as well. If someone wants to know where I'm from, I usually say "I'm from the U.S.", rather than "I'm an American." I don't really know why so many do that, though...

Answer 8

because we live in AMERICA?
like someone from Scotland call their self Europens but do the ppl from England.

Answer 9

Actually, we started going by "Worlds" now.

Answer 10

What would you suggest?...United Statians??

Your American? Canadian, Brazilian or ??...