I’m not an European, I’m an American, more precisely; from Mexico, unfortunately U.S.A. has snatched the name for itself, which is very annoying to me, specially after living for some time on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. I guess because some extra need to relate myself with Peruvians, Brazilians, Ecuadorians, Canadians, etc. Which I never met before in Mexico. There’s really not much to do about it, but nonetheless there’s plenty of interesting facts and conversation tidbits to explore.
Let’s start with the basics: there is actually more than one country with united states in America; the official name of Mexico is United Mexican States. Therefore, the states of Mexico are also states of America, which makes the name United States of America ambiguous; Which specific union of states are you talking about? In fact, some of these states have moved from one country to the other (Los Angeles California doesn’t sound particularity English, right?).
That leads to the main problem; the country of U.S.A doesn’t have anything distinctive about it; it’s just a bunch of land conquered by England. In the case of Mexico it was obvious. There was an empire, the Aztecs, which had a main city, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), so in order to build a country, and assimilate the people in it, a name was chosen in relation to the main city on the area. But in the case of U.S.A, England didn’t care about the native people at all, thus it was hard to pick a name, so they chose not to, they just referred to them as the thirteen united states of America. It’s as nonspecific as Country #9 of Africa.
Some people say, oh, but there’s no such thing as an American continent, there’s North America, and there’s South America, and there’s America the country. Which is total bullshit.
First of all, America (the continent) was named after Amerigo Vespucci (Italian cartographer), whose maps were used back in Europe to create the first map of America with respect to the world (and in fact the first world map):
So if any country deserves the name America, it would be Brazil, but that would be as ambiguous and obnoxious as Germany naming itself Europe. So, no, America is a continent. The part of U.S.A, “of America”, was used to denote that the country was located very far from England, Europe, or anything familiar.
Many people prefer U.S. or “The States”, but the problem is the demonym. In Spanish it’s “estadounidense” which translates to unitedstatesian, but that probably doesn’t sound nice in many languages, thus the only option: American.
So yeah, United States of America, is a totally uninspired nonspecific name. Hopefully at some point U.S.A would stop having as much importance as it has now, and the American continent can reclaim its name 🙂
Felipe Contreras 
The US independence was declared in 1776 and recognized in 1783. Mexican Independence was declared in 1810 and recognized in 1821.
So by the time they named their country we were something else, maybe just “Spain”. There were no “united states” of anything. So then, some “states” got united in America and they took that as a name. Did they need to be more creative, or consider that any other country *could* use something similar as a name 30 years later? I don’t think so. Using “American” to refer to a Unitedstatesian is really unfortunate, though. Furthermore, when *some* of the americans fail to recognize America as the whole continent.
So, in the same way, “Somecity Linux User Group” has nothing distinctive about it. We are a just a group of Linux users in some city. Does it need to be anything more than that?
With what I’ve seen so far about my country, I wouldn’t rule out Mexico having been trying to compare itself with the US.
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As alvarezp points out, the name of the United States of America predates the United Mexican States by a long shot. And, yes, the name was copied too.
By 1821, when (our true liberator) don Agustín Cosme Damián de Itúrbide y Arámburu entered Mexico City, the names styled were América Septentrional, Anáhuac, and some others. Upon signing the Tratados de Córdoba (which effectively constituted a new nation), it was also called by Agustín de Iturbide as the new Nación Mexicana, which became the Imperio Mexicano. (Of course, Spain refused to recognize the new nation and furthermore sent no ruler from the house of Bourbon; this was September 1821 – February 1822.)
The name of North America can also be seen in Santa Anna’s Plan de Veracruz (December 1822), formulated when he proclaimed the Republic (a “new” concept that the United States were using, which, according to him, he didn’t even understand):
Art. 2º — La América del Septentrión, es absolutamente independiente de cualquiera otra Potencia, sea cual fuere.
Following Agustín I’s abdication in March 1823, thanks partly to Miguel Ramos Arizpe and other federalists, the name for the new republic was copied from the United States of America and ratified in the Constitution of October 1824.
The United Mexican States is an anachronistic name, because “[i]t is the will of the Mexican people to constitute a representative, democratic and federal Republic composed by States, *free and sovereign* in all matters concerning their internal affairs; *but united in a federation* established according to the principles of this fundamental law” (emphasis is mine, words are from the Mexican Constitution of 1917, article 40).
So I’m fine with them keeping United States or The States, but America is far too much of a claim.
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Nitpick: Aztec is a misleading name. It was popularized by Humboldt, and it is an umbrella name for all the cultures and city-states which shared the nahuatl as language. The rulers of the Anahuac empire (from the desert of Mexico to Central America -Nicaragua means “here ends Anahuac”-) were the Mexicas, which is the eponymous of Mexico, and their main city was Tenochtitlán.
And about USA, well there is also a United Kingdom, where, I suspect, the name United States was inspired of. But I also agree on the snatching of the America’s name.
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Ok, even if Mexico copied the term “United States”, that doesn’t mean much; if the first republic in Europe used the term “Republic of Europe”, that would still be obnoxious. They already knew there was more than one country in America, and “United States” is not distinctive at all.
Besides, there’s many other countries beside Mexico that managed to pick a distinctive name that didn’t just have “of America.
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I happen to live in Mexico too (although I’m originally from France). Obviously, out of respect, when referring in Spanish to someone from the USA, there’s no way I would call them “americano”, since the very person I’m talking to is generally “americano” too, since they’re from the American continent.
I don’t like “estadounidense” (unitedstatesian) either, not because of “united states” being a fuzzy notion but simply because it’s too long to pronounce.
So I generally just say “gringo” which is a common term here. Some people use it in a pejorative way, but I don’t see that as a mandatory burden. If I happen to be talking to someone who might think I’m using the word in a pejorative way, I explain that I’m only using this word because I can’t find another one, and they understand it. So, “gringo”. Short, non-ambiguous. I’m even starting to use it in French, “gringois”, mainly for fun as a language twist, but also because I prefer not saying “américain” either.
And in English… no idea. I don’t speak English in my everyday life, and when I do speak or write in English, I never need to use that word, so I don’t know how I would say it. Certainly not “unitedstatesian”, which is unpronounceable (for me at least). I’m would give “gringo” a try, I guess.
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@davux Yeah, AFAICR pretty much everyone in Mexico uses “gringo” in colloquial speak, as there’s no easier option. But IMO it’s not pejorative, maybe if you say “pinche gringo”, but then again almost anything is pejorative if you prefix it with “pinche”. Unfortunately gringos have got into their mind that it’s pejorative and apparently the rest of the world now thinks the same. That’s why now people have started to use “gabacho”, or at least Mexicans in U.S.A. Ironically, that one was supposed to be pejorative, although I don’t recall people using it before.
Maybe we should reclaim “gringo” as well 🙂
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USA IS #1
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@mturquette: Said like a true Texan.
All in all, let it rest. USA, American, United Stateser, gringo, cracker, whatever… it’s all just a label. A convenient and accepted, if not necessarily correct identifier. I couldn’t care less what you call me. As long as you aren’t using a label to decide who goes up against the wall to shoot, call me whatever you want. If you are, then “I’m Irish, don’t shoot!”
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@Chris I don’t care either… as log as it’s not American 🙂
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Felipe:
American is anyone born in the American continent. From Argentina up to Canada (maybe Greenland too).
“U.S. national” or “U.S. American” is the legal way to refer to people from USA. That is why the U.S. passports and passports cards have typed “Nationality=USA” and “Nationality=United States of America”.
You will never find a U.S. passport on earth that have typed “Nationality=American”.
American is anyne from the American continent, named after Americo Vespucio. That is why the U.S. embassies are called “U.S. embassies” and NOT “American embassies”. an american embassy does not exist in this worlds because Continents do not have embassies.
That is why the U.S. citizenship and immigration service is called that way. It cannot be called American citizenship and immigration services. http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis
That is why the departments of the governement are called U.S.”—–” such as the U.S. department of state http://www.state.gov/, U.S. postal service. All government entities are called “U.S.____” because they cannot be called American postal service…American department of state. American is not a nationality.
In Spanish/portuguese speaking America, we refer to U.S. nationals as Unitedstatians (estadounidenses) because American can be anyone from the continent.
Also, the united states is a union of former colonies of England, Spain, and France.
The first European settlement was made in San Agustin, Florida, 21 years before the English arrived.
The U.S. is more latin than Spain, because there are over 65 milion speakers in the U.S.A that speak a latin language (Spanish, italian, French, etc).
America is a latin word. It is the female spanish version of Americo Vespucio.
The is no such thing as latin America, that is redundant.
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+Edu
Thanks, that was very informative. Unfortunately, many people call U.S.A. “America” informally 😦
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Actaully its be the equivalent of the European union to name itself The united states of Europe, the EU does not have all of Europe in it’s union, so by what was mentioned earlier the European union therefore is a stupid name too. Secondly, The constitution named the Nation the United States of America, the name wasn’t just made up as time goes by, it is the LEGAL name of the the nation. Brazil is smaller than the US so Brazil being called America is silly, Canada has more of a right then any other nation on either continent, besides the US, only because Canada is slightly bigger.Also The US did try to take over Canada about 200 years ago, and I do not doubt some people in our government wanted Mexico too at the time, since we did get some of Mexico after all. Heck some people probably were hoping we’d get all the land, from pole to pole.
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The European union is not a country; it’s an agreement between most countries in Europe. It’s anything but stupid. With what other European Union would you confuse it with?
U.S.A. does not cover most of America, and even if it did, it’s a single country. It can get confused with any other country in America, and America itself.
You mean the U.S. constitution. Well, imagine another region in America claims independence, and in its constitution they state their name should be America.
The “legality” of it doesn’t make it any less stupid.
Nonsense. It’s not about who is bigger, if so Russia could claim the name of Asia, and for that matter Europe as well. Look at the map, even before European people had set foot on U.S.A. territory, America was already named, and the name is where Brazil is now.
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Oh, let’s have an informal contest to come up with a name for what is called “The United States of America” and we could also have fun pissing off the ultra nationalists here in the “USA”.
If the states of Mexico are united states (estados unidos) then in some way Mexico is also “a” united states of america, no? Although I believe most Mexicans would not want to be called that.
🙂
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United Mexican States of America. hmm… that’s……. a long name.
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Davux, you are a gringo. The term “America” was used by Europe to point out the English colonies. The Kings of England gave charters for colonies and called the place where these colonies would exist ,”America.” It requires 10 minutes of research.
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It is your article that is stupid.
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@Joe Clark Really? Tell me what’s so smart about the name United States of America.
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You are not an American Felipe, you are a Mexican. The only reason you covet the name “America” is because of the reputation and value cache that Real Americans created around it.
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A German person is both German and European. I am both Mexican and American.
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I think it would be much easier if the USA just took after the UAE. As in, not “The United States of America,” but rather, “United American States,” because UAE citizens are known as emiratis and not the only ones in large territory known as Arabs, unlike the Americans. In the UAS they could be called Statespeople or something like that. But that’s just what I think.
(Guatemalan living in Canada)
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I’m an AMERICAN and I remain unconvinced by your argument, but this post was amusing and I like your spirit, so here’s a lengthy reply 😀
I agree that the term “American” is not the ideal moniker, but as it stands now, when I talk to most anyone from outside the AmeriCAS (and many people inside of them), if I tell them I’m American they’ll know I’m from the US, not Mexico or Colombia or anywhere else. Everyone knows and understands what “American” means, even if not everybody likes what it means. That’s what decides this debate. Heck, even when white people go to Nepal, they ask tourists, “What kind of American are you?” Moreover, it’s just the term that’s stuck for a variety of reasons as you mentioned, and the only reason this gets brought up as a problem is that for some reason people feel rankled that “their” continent’s “name” was stolen, simply for the sake of political correctness. That’s just the way the term is, and saying United Statesian or “US Citizen” is clunky. My passport says “USA” because it’s simpler to type and has fewer letters 😀
And in any case, saying the US (AMERICA! 😀 ) doesn’t have anything “distinctive” about it because “it’s just a bunch of land conquered by England” makes about as much sense as saying that Mexico does “make sense” because it centered around the Aztec Empire….even though Mexico was very much CONQUERED by the Spanish (Todos hablan español, no?), and Mexico also includes the former Mayan regions of the Yucatan, and various other smaller Native cultures.
This is a silly argument about a really informal but universally recognized term that’s not gonna go away anytime soon, if ever. This is like getting upset at UK citizen calling themselves a “Brit” because that’s not what it says on their passport. People understand that American = US citizen, so the terms are interchangeable and are now synonyms. Furthermore, equating “European” to “American” makes little sense because North and South America aren’t coherent geopolitical, racial, or ethnic entities like Europe very much is and has been for hundreds of years. It’s all just a bunch of random remnants of a bunch of former European colonies.
Besides, if you know anything about Americans (ahem, excuse me, I mean UnitedStatesiangringowhiteguy 😉 ), then you’ll know that we won’t change something so drastic as our name because a bunch of people are mildly irritated about it. That won’t change centuries of tradition (we’ve been referring to ourselves as such for hundreds of years), and it shouldn’t.
So, let me leave you with the immortal words of one Chris Kirk. For the record, I did like your article and your rhetoric, but I like his much more 😀
— “I’ll call myself ‘United Statesian’ when my friend from the Republic of Colombia calls herself a “Republican,” to avoid confusion with Columbia, South Carolina. To all critics of “America” as the U.S.: I know the situation isn’t ideal. I know the Constitution should really read “United States of Some Parts of America Plus Hawaii,” but that’s not how it reads, and lecturing Americans about it on cruises isn’t just pointless but also unfair. Americans have been calling their country “America” for more than two centuries. They will and should continue. Deal with it.” 😀
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/a_fine_whine/2013/08/america_the_continent_vs_america_the_country.html
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@The Celtic Predator Yes, people use the term American when talking about US people because there aren’t that many options, however, when it comes to the country, they often use other names.
Mexico was assimilated by the Spanish, the native population never really went away, most Mexicans are a mixture of Spanish, native, and other races. Our culture is also mixed. USA has nothing like that.
I don’t give a flying fuck about what you (unitedstatians) do. Once US’s empire falls (like all other empires in history), people are going to give less emphasis to call you American. You can’t control what the rest of the world does.
I am a free person, I do whatever I want.
And things change; everything changes. People often forget history, specially gringos (not a despective name). Two hundred years is really nothing in the global scale of things, whole civilizations that lasted ten times more than that have vanished, and I doubt USA will last that long.
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“United Statesian” is the proper demonym for people born in the USA. It is found in dictionaries, too which means the language has accepted the term as correct and proper.
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(American guy here) I think it comes down to accepting that different languages and cultures have their own way of naming and defining things. There is no absolute right or wrong, the naming schemes are mostly out of convenience and for some historical reasons. “Americano” (in Mexican Spanish) does not directly translate to “American” (in American English.) Likewise, “America” has a different (common) meaning in both languages. Felipe, you’re trying to force “America” to have the exact same definition in both languages, but it doesn’t work that way.
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Think about it this way…The U.S.A was the first nation in the Americas to gain independence. They do not have a specific name like Mexico, Canada, Brazil… Because the thirteen colonies (states) all already had individual names (New York, Pennsylvania, etc.) so it made sense to call the new republic “The United States of America” because “America” was the common name for the New World as a whole, and at the time they were the only independent states there so it made sense.
“In fact, some of these states have moved from one country to the other (Los Angeles California doesn’t sound particularity English, right?).” Dude, the original 13 colonies were made up of more than just english…German, Irish, Scottish… anybody could come and they did. Also you’ll find that many of the states, cities, landmarks are named after native american tribes/terms (Texas is based off of the caddo term for “friendship”), or the language of whoever had the most influence there. Just look at a map, English names are a minority.
I still don’t get why people are so hung up over this. Europeans specifically have been calling citizens of the U.S.A “americans” long before Mexico and other american nations gained their independence and that isn’t something that is likely to change anytime soon. “American” isn’t the official term as edu points out, but rather slang like gringoe. In fact people in the U.S usually identify themselves by their state/region rather than the nation as a whole. For example, “I’m Bostonian” “I’m Texan” “I’m Alaskan”. Besides let’s be honest, when you go abroad and people ask where you’re from you say “Mexico” ‘Brazil” etc. In fact Canadians are usually annoyed when their called Americans. People from Russia don’t identify themselves as asians. They say “I’m Russian”. In the grand scheme of things this (a name) is a really insignificant thing to be annoyed about. It has been going on for hundreds of years, and it will take many generations for something like this to change if at all because it isn’t so much the U.S.A’s mindset as it is the eastern hemisphere’s mindset.
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You are wrong. German people do say they are European. And Indian people say they are Asian.
Also, being the first country doesn’t give them the right to steal the name of the whole continent. There is no country called Europe, nor Africa, nor Asia.
The only reason U.S.A. is called America is because it’s a crappy unoriginal name. Every country in America has a unique name, except U.S.A.
You are just looking for excuses to keep calling U.S.A. America. Even Foobarland would be a better name, and would make things easier, so us, all American people living in American contries could call ourselves Americans, which we are.
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I agree with you FelipeC!!! everyone born in this great continent has all the right to call themselves Americans!
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Hello Felipe
The map above was made by a German cartographer, who got lot’s of information from Amerigo Vespucci’s writings. His name was something like Waldseemuller,I think. I agree with you on your comments about the name America being used to describe the, United States, as if only it the, United States, is America and only U.S. citizens are Americans. I have noticed this nonsense for years. I think the problem is when the founding Fathers formed this federation didn’t give it a PROPER NAME. The United States is not OF America, it is part OF the British Empire. Do you ever wonder why a newly elected president goes to Buckingham Palace with gifts for Queen Elizabeth the second? I think Thomas Paine was the one who named the colonies the United States of America. He thought the colonies should not be part of England. The British Ruling class don’t what the United States to be a sovereign nation and remain, just, the colonies. There is a lot more I can say about this misuse of the word America.
Thank you
I would like a reply.
JG
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That’s true. America is a continent; not a country and a continent whose name (America) predates the US.
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CHANGE YOUR FUCKING NAME USA!!!
America is a continent, not a country, USA citizens are idiots from 1776, America is a CONTIENNT idiots!!!! Change your name USA or South America will change the name.
YANKEES IDIOTS
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Pingback: The Trouble with Calling Myself an American
well, yes people you´re all rigth. America was named before Mexico could even get its indepence, you did get first conformed a country. but a country conformed within usurpation, robbery, raping real emrican people. your ” greatness” is based upon deceive, lies, usurping, robering, killing, and what we call in our better country than yours. pinches gandallas. besides spanish is a superior lsnguage than yours. and saying that does not makes me more stupid than you. y si les digo esto en ingles, no es potque soy un sometido por naturaleza. sino porque tengo la educacion que ustedes nunca tendran
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I’m from the U.S. I admit that using the term “America” is an over generalization that marginalizes the rest the Americas, and I’m mindful not to say “I’m from America” to be fair and even politically correct. Anyone who lives on the American continents is American, yes. I get you don’t like the name given to the country I live in which is in between Canada and Mexico, and I get why. To avoid confusion and tension between the U.S. and the rest of the Americas, I really wish the founding fathers had been more original in their choice of name. I’m sure at the time, it seemed reasonable considering other nations on the continent had not had their independence. Whatever the case, the name remains. What are we supposed to call ourselves then, so as not to offend? Even if we called everyone Americans, nobody else would want to be identified as such. After all, we are a hated bunch of people as a nation. I think you should write a letter to the U.S. government asking them to change the name. And please forgive me for using the term U.S., but writing out “the country between Mexico and Canada” takes too long every time. I sympathize with your geographic slight, and wish you all the best in your pursuit to get the name changed. Just don’t pick Gringolandia, please. Despite you say it not being pejorative, it is, let’s be honest.
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“I’m from the U.S.” is fine. And actually, the government of U.S.A. doesn’t need to change anything; “America” is not the official name; that’s why the passport says U.S. national, not American.
I actually don’t mind it that much when people say “I’m American” (there’s no good alternative demonym), what bothers me is when people say “I’m from America”.
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Hey people, the name America was first apllied to the new continent in the beginning of the XVI century. It appears at the Waldseemüller map as homepage to Américo Vespúcio, an Italian navigator who worked for Spain and Portugal. He died in 1512, and the map with his name appears in 1520 (if I’m not mistaken for some years). Anyway, America is a Latin word, so it could never had be used for the first time to name the U.S. Or make part of its name.
Native American peoples are those who has roots wit ancient Americans civilizations from Chile to Canada.
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you are all a bunch of assholes. you have some weird inferiority complex so have to make a big deal out of nothing. since no better choice exists, people from the country between canada and mexico (both one word names) shall be referred to as americans. and everybody know what we are talking about except a true ass hat.
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“gringos” comes from the spanish american war, when the mexican soldiers heard the american troops singing “green grows my valley”. At least thats the version I know.
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Shut up, beaner
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It’s 2 continents, North America and South America. USA citizens are American by country, North American by continent and Earthling by planet. If you are not a USA citizen You are either North American or South American by continent.
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@Craig Winans No. I’m Mexican, and I am American. The North/South division is an invention that I, and many people around the world, don’t accept.
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Chiming in as an American, and more specifically a Canadian: Maybe this is the problem with the USA – they have an identity crisis. Their country doesn’t have a name, it’s just a description of a collective. Personally I call it “The States.” Whether that means states of confusion, states of distress or states of denial, I just let the listener infer.
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In all English speaking countries schools teach that America is a country in the continent of North America, I find it impressive that in Spanish US citizens are referred to as Estadounidenses yet you don’t say a word about how Mexican are also Estadounidenses being as Mexicos name in Spanish is Estados Unidos Mexicanos
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Because Mexico, unlike USA, has an actual name, so citizens of United Mexican States are simply referred as Mexicans.
USA doesn’t actually have a name, so we have to resort to ridiculous demonyms such as Estadounidenses.
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Really worried about this, huh? Maybe Americans are called that, in part, becsuse no one else calls themselves that. Mexicans don’t and never have. Same with Canadians, Peruvians, etc. it’s not like Americans got together and took a vote, anyway. Someone started using the demonym and it stuck. Find something real to worry about. America is not the great Satan. And The United States has a real name. It’s The United States of America. And people the world over call people from that country “Americans.” It’s not a conspiracy to belittle anyone.
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We (real Americans) call ourselves that, just like Europeans call themselves European. America is a continent. Period.
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I could care less what anyone thinks. I call The United States of America “The US” “The USA” and “America” interchangeably. Argentinians are Argentinians AND South Americans. Americans are Americans AND North Americans. Sure, more originality could have been put into the name. Some of the founders wanted to call the new County “The United States of Columbia.” Now Colombia took the name. Why be so offended over the issue? Why be jealous over us using the name? You have your own name for your country of the United States of Mexico. You also have a state called Baja California, which was named AFTER the American California.
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I’m not jealous; my country has a good name: Mexico, and my continent too: America. It’s people from USA that have a stupid country name.
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Great article and comments. I agree that the United States should be referred to
as the “United States” or “U.S.A.”, only. George Bush just didn’t sound right
when he referred to the 9/11 attack on “America”. The United States was
attacked. Was Mr. Bush the President of “America”?
On a smaller scale, a similar thing can be said about Manhattan being referred
to as “New York City”. Manhattan is just a part of NYC. New York City is
comprised of five boroughs. Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan and the
Bronx. Manhattan is Manhattan, not New York City. But that’s for another thread.
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At the founding of the USA, the term “state” referred to a sovereign geographical political entity. Every country was a “state”. So when USA declared independence from England, it was the first time that a group of former colonies each declared themselves to be “states” in their own right. However, this was the first time that a group of states decided to unite. Thus thirteen former American colonies of Great Britain declared themselves to be thirteen individual states and were united in their quest for independence. So just as Mexico is a state in its own right, since they decided to emulate the USA in their naming convention, each of the areas under more local control, also became states. So now, instead of “state” referring to a country, we have the new concept of a federal entity governing states. Anytime a group of countries (states) decide to unite under a federal entity, they could be referred to as united states. The Czech Republic has 14 semi-self governing regions. If they wanted to, they could call these regions states and become the United States of Czechia. The EU could become the United States of Europe. In Spanish, everyone would then be Estadounidenses.
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This is such a dumb posting. The people of the United States of America call our country what WE want, not you. It is ours, not yours. We do not tell you what to name your country. Mexicans have a real problem with their identity. They want to live in the US and take what they want, and then not be a US citizen. Go back to Mexico and take Your prejudices with you. Mexicans and middle americans are some of the most prejudiced people. They want our freedoms but do not want us to have them.
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So, which countries in the Americas have “America” as part of their official name? You know, this is why the USA is referred to as America, because that is the name of the country, literally. That is it, no one is trying to be self-important. And so what if the name Mexico was local? That means very little considering how the place was managed and how the Natives were treated (and still are). Don’t even try to play the card that only the USA treated Natives badly. I am Canadian and I can vouch for how little anyone gave a shit about Natives, and I know it was the same throughout the Americas. Really, stop trying to find stupid little things to throw at the USA and try to talk about real issues. AND BTW almost all Americans I speak to use the term USA to refer to their country. They are not throwing the word America around to get up your ass.
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If a country in Europe was calling itself Europe, because it was the only country that had Europe in their name, you would think it was trying to be self-important.
Don’t put “Europe” in the name of your country in the first place.
I do talk about real issues, like USA’s horrible foreign policy, but that has nothing to do with the fact that USA is a stupid country name, because it is.
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That is not fact, that is your opinion. And that is fine, we all have opinions. And there is nothing distinctive about any country, by your standard of land conquered by foreigners, isn’t that what all of human history is? The United States of Mexico is also stolen land and just a term used to call it all one thing. And Vespucci used the name for a land of which he did not actually know the topography. There is no American continent, there are two continents. He was wrong, that happened a lot, you know. We were not Indians either. Terms became convention. And this whole whining about I AM AMERICAN TOO is just silly to me. Canada happens to come from a term that means village, because the French did not understand what the Natives were telling them. But the name stuck. Not all of Europe is part of the EU, should we get bent out of shape about that? So tired of the language police, the neoleft libtards that make things worse than better by focusing on stupid shit rather than real issues.
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It is a fact you cannot see.
That’s incredibly stupid. 99% of the countries on Earth have a unique distinctive name that’s based on their history.
It’s not stolen land. Nobody owns land. It’s a land with history.
Part of that history in part of that land includes the history of the Meshica people. Thus the unique name that no other country or continent shares.
There are five continents: Europe, Africa, Asia, America and Australia. Each has a unique name, each name has a unique history of how it came about.
He didn’t name America, not only have you not read about the subject, you didn’t even read my blog post.
America is a continent. I am an American. And USA is stupid name. Period.
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There are seven continents, Felipe. Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Antarctica, and Australia. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard a European person say that they’re European. They always say what country they’re from.
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Maybe you don’t know enough of them. They say they are European, from Europe, they say they are going back to Europe, etc. Europe is a thing.
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What would be a better name for USA? Yankeeland? Something from natives? Very interesting!
There can be different quantity of continents. Finns atleast think that Europe and Asia are one continent, Eurasia.
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I’ve no idea what would be a better name, but virtually all countries on Earth managed to pick a unique name.
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How can you be the greatest country of the earth if you don’t even have a name?
What a shame
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How can “the greatest country on Earth” elect Donald Trump as president? How can people reject evolution and global warming? It’s also one of the stupidest.
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No. There is no continent called America. North America and South America have been considered 2 different continents for a very long time and going off an extremely inaccurate map that was made hundreds and hundreds of years ago and saying that it’s one thing based off that is extremely ignorant in all reality. The official demonym for someone from the United States is American. You’re North American. I’m North American. You’re also a Mexican. I’m an American. You can’t say there’s 6 continents instead of 7 just because you want there to be.
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@Blorges You can’t say there are 7 continents just because you want there to be. There are 6 continents.
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Well then Felipe. Continue to be completely incensed by the arrogance of us Americans that have stolen your identity. You are still replying to this BS after 7 years. Seriously, most people don’t give a shit. And I am an American who chooses to live in Mexico because I love Mexico more than the US. Please, explain how you have been hurt by foreigners referring to the USA as America? If this is really the biggest worry you have, then you should feel pretty good about your life. I and most people from the USA actually refer to ourselves as being from the US when someone asks us where we are from. Maybe you should be pissed off at the foreigners for calling us Americans. I also find it very disturbing that you evidently are wishing for the day when the USA fails. Your responses to commenters read more like a bitter old man who has no idea why he is bitter. You may as well yell “Get off my lawn!!”
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Who said it was my biggest worry? Typical irrational debate strategy: strawman argumentation.
And the USA will fail, it’s only a matter of time. All empires in history eventually fail. Period.
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Oh yeah. By the way, we can actually say there are seven continents because that is a completely excepted answer whether you believe it or not. Just type in the question, “How many continents are there?” You know what is also excepted? 6
continents depending on what part of the world you were educated in. Or even the less accepted answer you had of 5 continents. But sure, you must be the only correct answer we all know. Those damn Imperialist abusing you.
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FelipeC,you are both mexican and american. you said “There are five continents: Europe, Africa, Asia, America and Australia. Each has a unique name, each name has a unique history of how it came about.” I agree with you on the number of continents in that answer,but i say it’s oceania,not australia. australia is a country. Australia was named as a country before someone called it a continent. Most mexicans and other spanish speakers consider oceania a continent. You’re the first Mexican who called australia a continent,but i say australia is a country and nothing more. also,what continent is tonga part of? that’s the exact reason i use oceania as a continent.a;lso,the japanese consider europe and asia one continent. and then there are these few people who conside there to be two continents,new world and old world. continents are a convention,not a reality.
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@Team Awesomeness Australia is both a country and a continent. Oceania is a region, and it includes the continent of Australia, and Polynesia.
Sure, in Mexico they teach us the continent is Oceania. But I’m not trying to go for what they teach in each particular part of the world, but what makes more sense globally.
Most people use Australia as the fifth continent, but yeah, I agree Oceania makes more sense, so it would be:
Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Oceania.
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most spanish-speakers use oceania as a continent. australians are from the commonwealth of australia and the commonwealth of australia alone. oceania is 4 regions,not 1. in most languages,oceania is considered a continent,including,but not limited to, spanish,french,portuguese,italian,german,and dutch. no country is the entirety of a continent. no country is a continent. no country can be the entirety of a continent. the language with the most native speakers is mandarin chinese. what continent is fiji part of? every country has to be part of a continent. no country is a continent,but europe has a flag. no continent is only 1 country,but europe has a flag,
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@Team Awesomeness. That’s one definition of continent, it’s not the only one.
I agreed that for me Oceania better describes such region of the world, but it’s not the only definition.
“Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul, Australinea or Meganesia, to distinguish it from the Australian mainland, is a continent comprising mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, New Britain, and small neighbouring islands (such as Misool and Waigeo, just to the northeast of Maluku Islands at the edge of its continental shelf).”
Papua New Guinea is considered part of the Australian *continent*.
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You can not call your country whatever you want, sir. You have no historical background or historic right to refer yourselves as America. Get it real. AMERICA, Americans and Amerigo Vespucci are related to the Brazilian history since 1505, centuries before you showed up here and Amerigo Vespucci never set foot in any former British colony. Respect the common identity of all people and countries of this continent called AMERICA.
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Mr. Baechler, Do you know the definition of continent? A large mass of land that is NOT separated by an ocean, sea or a chain of mountains. AMERICA is only continent from South where it was discovered and named, to the North. The English speaking countries appeared in this continent centuries after it was discovered and named by the Iberians, not by the British. Please don’t try to divide or rename this continent just because you Yanks want to. AMERICA is a heritage that belongs to all people and countries of this continent and if you don’t feel comfortable to share this heritage with us, you always have the choice to get out , but the AMERICAN history will remain with us.
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anyway,there are many languages in the world,i particuraly like romance languages,celtic languages,austronesian languages,japanese,chinese,korean,and vietnamese.
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Is nothing wrong with the name. The name is very clear United States of America….that means America being a whole continent….They are the first United States of “continent America”. They did not take the name as americans….their name is just U.S (United States). American means a citizen of continent….but citizen of US means something else….all legal matters use the name U.S citizen not “american”. You just sound racist now…so think before posting something so weird….You are frustrated because some people are not wise enough to make the difference…that does not matter that the whole country is like that. The same applies to your country when you call yourself Latino….well Latino are not you…Latino are Spain, Romania, Italy, Portuguese and France….you are not Latino…but we still let you use the term….once again get your frustrations in place….it’s 2018…not medieval era
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cosmo You are wrong. United States of America is not clear. Mexico is also of America, and it’s constituted by an union of states. When you say “United States of America”, which union of states of America are you referring to? It’s as vague as “Republic of Asia”.
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I have a solution: the words “Usonia” and “Usonian”
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john said “Chiming in as an American, and more specifically a Canadian: Maybe this is the problem with the USA – they have an identity crisis. Their country doesn’t have a name, it’s just a description of a collective. Personally I call it “The States.” Whether that means states of confusion, states of distress or states of denial, I just let the listener infer.” most canadians are offended to be called american. @FelipeC it’s also as vague as “kingdom of africa” or “principality of europe” or “independent state of oceania” i have a blog on this site.
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@Team Awesemeness. I completely agree, and I’ve noticed Canadians call such country “The States”. In Mexico it’s “Estados Unidos”, although we also use “Gringolandia”, “El Gabacho”. I think pretty much anything is better than “America”.
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unfortunately for you,that name is already used for organization of american states.
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but you said that being the first country of a continent doesn’t give a country the right to have the same name as the continent.
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but what about chile?
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Usonia
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the european union itself is stupid
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the real reason united states of america is a stupid name is because the states aren’t united.
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Nice comment. Felipe
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/America is a continent, not a country, USA citizens are idiots from 1776, America is a CONTINENT, idiots!!!! Change your name, the USA or South America will change the name. fixed with Grammarly.
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fixed with Grammarly.
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It’s been a while since I’ve been by this blog post, but clearly this has generated an impressive debate and/or argument, so it is apparently worth revisiting. The one post I agree with most on this thread is as follows:
“(American guy here) I think it comes down to accepting that different languages and cultures have their own way of naming and defining things. There is no absolute right or wrong, the naming schemes are mostly out of convenience and for some historical reasons. “Americano” (in Mexican Spanish) does not directly translate to “American” (in American English.) Likewise, “America” has a different (common) meaning in both languages. Felipe, you’re trying to force “America” to have the exact same definition in both languages, but it doesn’t work that way.”
I think that’s the gist of the matter — different cultures and languages have their own ways of defining concepts both abstract and concrete, and ‘American’ as is in English will remain a demonym of the USA for better or worse (I know you believe worse). For the record, when I travel to Latin America (or Spanish-speaking America, etc.), such as Bolivia and Argentina most recently, whenever I’m asked (in Spanish) where I’m from, I say, ‘Los Estados Unidos,’ because that’s the local socially and/or linguistically recognized term. You’ve said you don’t care what us US citizens call ourselves numerous times, including to my original comment (re: don’t give a flying fuck), but it seems to me you obviously do, hence your original blog post and almost 7 years of back ‘n forth.
You even admit at certain points throughout this argument that multiple definitions of continents exist; I for one have never understand why Eurasia was artificially separated into Europe + Asia, not to mention that East Asia [China, Japan, N/S Korea, Taiwan, etc] have culturally, linguistically, and historically little in common with South Asia [India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc)], and are separated by the largest mountain range on earth, so why is “Asia” itself even a thing? Clearly, there’s some room for interpretation with regards to geographic or geopolitical classification. Hell, I’m a biologist, and there are tons of controversy and debate over what constitutes a given species! Taxonomy of any system implies some sort of compromise or conformity, no?
I suppose we’re at an impasse here, so I’ll leave one final comment that has nothing to do with this overarching linguistic debate: I don’t feel like all these ad hominems (by you and others) are conducive to discussion in general, nor is replying numerous times as you have throughout this thread that your stance is *fact*, and other people are just wrong because they’re wrong. Even if you honestly believe that, or if you *are* right (say, if we were debating about the influence of evolution on the diversity of life), responding with, “No, my argument is FACT; yours is wrong!” shuts down debate; there’s also no excuse for ad hominems, which include creepy prophetic wishes like hoping the US will “fail” or fall or disintegrate, or whatever.
What I’m saying is that I’ve changed my earlier stance with regards to liking your rhetoric on this thread. I’ve realized I don’t like it all, irrespective of the actual debate taking place. Whether one cares about the civility of debate is up to them, I suppose, but a lack thereof never convinces the opposing side to sympathize, let alone empathize with your argument. If in fact your original goal was just to rant, which I do too on many an occasion, then civil debate probably doesn’t matter to you, and I rest my case.
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“You are wrong” is not an “ad hominem”; it’s a statement of fact, it can be true, or it can be false. But it happens to be true.
Language evolves, you can’t say “American” will remain the demonym in English, because you don’t know the future.
You complain about my tone, that in itself is not conducive to a fruitful debate. The goal is not debating for the sake of debating, the goal is arriving at truth.
And I don’t see anything in your statements that changes the truth that “America” is a stupid name for a country. Even if what you said that “American” will remain the demonym it’s still stupid. You are merely describing the status quo, not arguing why it isn’t stupid.
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Well, what really hurts is that US, USA, CBCAM – call it whatever want – just lets too much to self. They can attack any country without consequences. Did ever happened that there were sanctions against US ? No. Not even all bad around false reason to attack Iraq (alleged weapons of mass destruction), killing million people there – in name of making some democracy. Sadam is dead, and what came later is much worse – IS .Watch serial Looming Tower, and will see what I talking about. So, forgive me to thinking how fathers of nations, name givers – pardon, there is no name – name is missing. I could call it rather agenda than name. Will not continue, that’s long story. I’m not against people there, they are basically same as people in any other country. Just some heads want too much. US forced my country to double military expanses – because “US can not defend Europe alone” – oh, thank you very much making all it in Middle East and Africa. Now we have 40 million refugees to care about in Europe, because of what some did … Some may say that I’m off topic. I think that all it is related. As we know England liked to conquer. Founders continued it, first with name – conquered whole continent in name. Was it so hard to find some name ? We have Swiss here, as union of 3 nations. Sure, there was no long history with white man there in 18-th Century, but all states had own names, without ‘America’ in it. Not to mention that we have now state outside American continent – Hawaii – maybe to change ‘name’ to “United States of America and Oceania” ! 🙂
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Reply to Celtic Predator (2 posts above)
Funny thing is to turn this into some language issue. And believe me, I heard many times that ‘this is language problem’ in discussions – technical ones, mostly. No, it was almost never it. Rather it was shallow usage of terms. Certainly, every language has it’s logic, some established patterns and like.
Words make, kill are much more universal in English. But I still say, that “making money” phrase is very bad. No, only state has right to make money. And even you meant it in way of not using monets (cash) – it is bad. What some person or firm can do is only transfer money, trade it for something else. And of course, you can steal it or give to someone just like that. Or even better example: you can make forged money. Not proper one, even if copy is 100% faithful – that’s invalid money.
Then, calling sport where can play with hands too football – come on . Additionally, name football was already established for specific game (turn on TV and search for current World Championship in Russia – even they know English better :-))) )
Other shallowness example, what rises my hair: pronouncing bio with ‘eye’ i instead original way – and this is old Greek world, very elementary in whole Planet. Same stays for anti.
Considering said about Eurasia – artificially separated to Europe and Asia – that’s true, but it changes nothing. Continent must be not separated with sea, ocean from other one. Otherwise you forgot Africa. And we know that even America and Asia were joined long time ago, same stays for Brit island and Eu – later not only with ice. There is term Indoeuropean race – why not. Race self is ‘artificial’ separation, classifying by some criteria.
And here lies the key of whole thing. There is no any criteria what can justify calling 1/3 of Northern America ‘united whatever of America’ . I can buy 3 ranches in Paraguay and call them ‘United Ranches of America’ – My neighbour can do the same – or someone 5000 miles away. Then we have name conflict – actually conflict because lack of name. Lack of territory specification. Australia can call self by continent, because it is same territory.
I don’t see need to continue. Think about this things fellow ‘people of Washington’. This was just some kind of constructive critic.
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They were the first ones to declare independence, I don’t blame them. Also, I’m from Argentina. Guess what? Argentina comes from argentum, that’s silver. The spanish thought there was silver here. There wasn’t, all of it is in Bolivia (Potosi). Why do we still call ourselves Argentina if there’s no silver? It’s as simple as “nobody cares”
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The reasoning doesn’t matter, everyone knows what Argentina is, and there’s no continent called Argentina, so it’s unique. As long as a name is unique, it works.
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Bitching about the term “America” is a residue of Euro brainwashing where the Injuns must adopt their names to bear an identity acceptable in today’s still quasi-European society. “America” is a Latinization of the name Emerrich, which is German, a language closely related to English. Both Germans and English are descendants of the Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxon, Frankish, Normans), a general ethnic group whom collectively took over Europe, appropriated Roman rule, and dragged & raped Celtic Predator’s great-great-…great grandmother all the way from Ireland to Iceland. Compared to the Latin-oriented colonies, the English and Dutch regions had the most Injun blood in their hands, and the slave trade prolonged under their watch, compared to Spanish America already emancipating blacks before Lincoln. The US is predomiantly Anglo/Germanic in both demographic and culture, and loves to brag about it. Hell, the main reason why the Vikings “football” team got their name is because Minnesota–despite its indigenous name–is full of Anglo-Saxons, Germans and Swedes, whom glorify their pirate ancestors.
On the same vein, it’s rich to whine about one country hogging the continent’s name but not about the etymology of others. Nations such as Colombia (after Columbus; literally “Colony land”), Puerto Rico and Republica Dominicana are just named after generic terms used by colonials to refer to the usage of those lands, at the cost of the original names used by indigenous tribes. Others like Venezuela (Little Venice), [French] Guinea, and the West Indies are named after the explorers’ homeland, to claim property, or because they were too stupid to realize this isn’t India.
I have a solution: Most native American (US) tribes refer to the land as “Turtle Island.” Maybe all indigenous tribes should come in agreement and refer to the land as “Turtle Land” in their respective, localized tongues. Let the gringos keep “America”, they’re so lost that they need to hyphen everyone from the Americas not born in the US, which is ironic if you think about it.
On the topic of America being a continent or two, it’s a single continent. I call bullshit on having to split it into two yet Asia, already cut in half by the Himalaya mountain range, is still considered as one. Add in the relatively undiscernable genetic makeup and cultures between North American tribes and South American tribes and you have a single continent unjustly split in half for bullshit ethno-political reasons.
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“America” has nothing to do it “Emerrich”, it comes from Amerigo Vespucci.
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I agree with this article.
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In French (Québec), we hear “Étatsiunien” or “Étasunien” quite often, and it’s used frequently in newspapers. I like the term. It’s not too convoluted and it expresses what it needs to express. In English, I like the term “Unistatian”, but I don’t use it myself. I just use “American” because it’s implicitly understood. I can’t stand the word “America” to refer to a country, though. America is a continent.
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I can no longer reply to any comments on this article, but I can still comment directly. . yes, America is a continent. as for what the United States should be called, Etazini
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Fiji is part of Oceania.
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but you also said australia was a continent
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That is right. There’s another continent called Australia that doesn’t include Fiji, but for example includes Papua.
The continent of Australia includes the country of Australia, but not Fiji.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_(continent)
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but by saying australia was a conitnent, you also said oceania was not a continent. by saying there were 5. also, australia is part of oceania.
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It can be both. North America is not part of the main definition of five continents.
But it can be considered a continent, and it is, for some people.
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