What should U.S. citizens be called?

U.S. citizen works for me.

Late for breakfast.

Umm… Forgive my ignorance, but why is “Americans” insufficient? Since when are there other countries than America in the country of America? Maybe you’re referring to nationalities. In that case, I would say “citizens” is perfect, since, when a person becomes a U.S. citizen, that’s exactly what they are. Since you mentioned that “U.S. citizen” is too dull, I’m thinking maybe you’re looking for a perfect word for a writing project. If that’s the case, care to elaborate? These jellies are great at helping with wording.

P.S. Also, I’ve never even heard of calling a general American citizen a Yankee. I’ve always thought of that word as referring to northerners.

@RandomGirl “American” can refer to any person/thing in North America and South America, from Canada to Chile.

‘British subjects in a perpetual state of treason against the Crown.’

I vote for “Americans.” I think it’s fairly well universally accepted as meaning citizens of he United States.

Of course Americans is sufficient. Try calling a Canadian or an Argentinian an American… you will get some interesting stares.

As a Canadian, please do not call me an American. If you must insist, you may call me a North American. But as far as I’m concerned, that is not sufficient.

@dxs That is certainly something I’ve never heard of.

@RandomGirl I suppose what I said is “politically correct”. I’m not saying that I think you shouldn’t call someone from the USA an “American” in offense to anyone else in the Americas, because I refer to them as that myself. I am just saying (and justifying what @dabbler said) that “American” can be ambiguous, especially depending on the circumstance. For example, I took a Geography class, and “American” almost always referred to America, never specifically USA.

I think they should call use Southern Canadians because nobody hates Canadians.

@WestRiverrat We may be late for breakfast but we make up for it in volume.

@ragingloli Indeed! Want us back?

@RandomGirl All of us in North America and South America are Americans as @dxs notes.
You probably have heard the terms “North American” “South American”, both kinds are Americans.
Especially since the Monroe doctrine, it does seem like WesternHemisphere=UnitedStates but technically there are lots of other countries in the Americas.

@Ron_C I wouldn’t mind so much if we also adopted your health-care system. Otherwise the Canadian government has in recent years been sliding quickly down the same neo-con global-capitalist trough as that of the U.S..
But we have visited relatives on both coasts of Canada and always enjoy it thoroughly.

@dabbler wait, let me get this straight, you want the U.S. health system?

Oh my mistake! I thought you were Canadian. That’s the one I want.

Americans may not be totally accurate, as you said. But it is currently conventionally accepted as meaning people from the US.

I don’t think our brethren in Canada would appreciate being called Americans. Not offended certainly, they are not that way, but not appreciative.

And I do not think our Brazilian neighbors, a vibrant and emerging culture and economy would appreciate being called Americans either.

So the truth is, whether you or anybody else likes it, American is generally regarded as “a citizen of the US”

Feel free to start working on changing social convention. It usually takes one or two generations.

North American Scum

Staties?

‘Muricans

I say “I’m from the States”. My accent gives away which states

When I was in China, they understood me to be an “American”. I don’t mind it being mildly inaccurate.

@dabbler right, I’m not a Canadian, I just pretend that I am when traveling..

Assholes.

But well meaning ones!

I asked a similar question long ago that you might be interested in.

I find it interesting that some Americans seem almost pissed off at the idea that people from other parts of the Americas are considered American. But, for the most part people from the USA are referred to as Americans and it is understood. If someone foreign asks me where I am from I don’t say America I say the United States, because I think it is more accurate. But, I do use the term American to describe my nationality, because in English we don’t really use United Statesian.

In other parts of the Americas they tend to use their country the same as we are really referring to our country not the continent. I never hear someone say they are South American for instance, they say they are from Colombia, or Peru, Chile, etc. But, the family of my Italian BIL (they live in Italy) called his wife the Americana, and she was Mexican.

I have a woman who works at my place, she is originally from Tonga but has lived here in New Zealand since she was 8 years old and has New Zealand residency, I asked her once how she considers herself, in terms of nationality, she replied that she calls herself a Tongan New Zealander, that sort of description works perfectly I think. Perhaps there are people living in the US who might think of themselves as Mexican American, or Irish American, or Italian American, for example??

@Adagio We do. That is how we refer to ourselves if we still feel an identity tied to our former country or a country where our family is from. There are third and fourth generation Americans who are Italian-American, they don’t have to be the one who immigrated here. But, most people don’t use that term. My husband is Mexican-American, when people ask him what he is, he usually replies Mexcian, even though he is an American Citizen, because they ask based on his looks and accent. America is such a country of immigrants that it is extremely common in most parts of the country to ask people where their family is from even if they seem obviously born and raised here. In parts of our south and midwest it is uncommon to ask or identify with countries of origin though.

I’m not sure, but unless you want to take candid videos of US drones in operation; I’d avoid being called a foreign based enemy of the USA.

Obese ~

septics

@ucme That’s so British of you. I watch Top Gear.

One of the few shows I regularly watch, have done for years, they always get their facts right.

Liberators?

Americans. Because humans are used to language ambiguities.