Why "Americans"?

Question

Would you (United States guys) plase stop calling your self "Americans"?

I'm from Chile and I'm also American since I live in America (The main land), but I feel is a missrespect saying that America it's just United States, what about the other countries? don't we count?

Answer 1

The full name of our country is The United States of America. We go by 'Americans' for short. It is not to disrespect anyone.

Answer 2

I've answered this same question four or five times already, but here goes again.
Nationalities are designated by the country that the person is from, not the continent. If I say that I'm a United Stateser, the Mexicans will say their country is also United States in Spanish.
I don't know about the official names of all of the South American countries, but none up here have the word America in the official name, except this one.
When I say that I'm American, how is that showing any disrespect to you. When I say I'm American, I don't say but nobody else is. How does that show disrespect ?
If you want to call yourself an American, go ahead. You sure have my permission.
You're suggesting no one counts unless they're American. That's very nice of you. Thank you.

Answer 3

Don't worry...

We're just prepping for when the evil Empire of the United States of America annexes the entire American continent. Then we'll all be correct when we call ourselves "Americans".

Seriously though, the laziness part is the real reason. Wouldn't you get tired of saying "I'm a citizen of the United States of America" everytime someone asked. After all, you can just say "I'm Chilean" and really nobody is saying you can't call yourself American, go for it.

Answer 4

Oh here we go again, I haven't heard this in almost 6 months. Let me ask you something. When you get a passport, do you put yourself down as American or Chilean? Because I have a passport and it says American on it. I've been all around Europe, Australia, and Jamaica, and when they think of American, the only country that comes to mind is USA. Get over yourself, you are Chilean from the continent of South America. I'm American from the continent of North America.

Answer 5

ok, so every country in the big continent of america has a name, namely canada, mexico, chile, argentina, brazil, uruguay, bolivia... etc etc. the only nation in this long continent that doesnt have a creative name is the us, which just calls itself the united states of america. doesnt say much about the founding fathers creativity but thats its name so i guess its proper for "united statians/ers" to call themselves americans, just for the abbreviation. im chilean too, but i say so what!!!
i personally think americans call themselves americans because their only world gets to the rio grande to the south, the oceans to the west and east, and canada to the north. ask any average american who is mr sarkozy and she will know jack sh*t about him. last january i was in florida and a girl said to me "u r italian, right?" to which i replied "no im chilean", to which she said "oh... and what language do u speak in chile??????????".
ok, so americans dont know much about the rest of the continent, let alone the rest of the world, but who cares... so what! just live ur life and get over that "american" concept shite will you?!

Answer 6

The proper name of our great country is the "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" so therefore the name that we call ourselves comes directly from our countries name. Just as you are a Chilean. Technically you could say you were from the "America's", but sadly for you that still don't make you "AMERICAN"

Answer 7

I've never heard anyone say that the only Americans are the ones in the United States....if that is what you're hearing than perhaps it is the world's perception...other than that, suck it up, people offend us all the time.

Answer 8

You may feel feel to use "United States of American" if you want.. but the rest of us will just go with American.

Answer 9

Haven't you heard God Bless America? What do you have against ethnocentrism anyway? It is not like we are saying God Bless South America or God Bless North America. Blame Americo Van Spuci or whatever his name was.

I'm just messing with ya. We Americans are fat and lazy so instead of saying the United States of America we truncate it to be just plain old America. It is like calling Michael; Mike

Answer 10

(shrug). Deal with it. We're Americans. Why we're called Americans when people from Mexico are called "Mexicans", people from Peru are called "Peruvians", and people from Chile are called "Chileans", I honestly don't know. But, we are.

Haven't you all been calling us "norte americanos" for a couple of decades now? Is that an insult to Canadians in your eyes?