[WikiEN-l] Naming America

Mon Mar 3 19:35:02 UTC 2003

cprompt at optonline.net wrote:

>I realize that anecdotal evidence doesn't really mean much for an
>encyclopedia, but I'd still like to share. I asked my friend who lives in
>Canada whether he ever calls himself an American as a resident of North
>America, and whether he would refer to people in Mexico or South America as
>Americans. He replied no, and said that he refers to himself as a Canadian,
>United States citizens as Americans, Mexico citizens as Mexicans, etc. He
>doesn't know anyone else who does. It seems to me that an overwhelming
>majority of people I've come into contact with, as well as the media I've
>been exposed to refer to U.S. citizens as Americans, preferring to identify
>people by their nation rather than continent. While you could refer to
>people from Europe as Europeans, it would just promote confusion if you
>identified people from the Americas and Americans. While I personally think
>that one nation, (even if it is my own) should not hog the name of two
>entire continents, I see it as the same situation as Pennsylvania Dutch
>(Pennsylvania German?)
>
There is no doubt that "people of the United States" is less 
controversial, but those of us in the other Americas will certainly 
condescend to permit them to use the term, "American", providing that we 
be spared from being mistaken for them, for certainly the citizens of 
all the other countries of the Americas have available adjectives that 
would enable them to be distinguished from the United States.  

Amerigo Vespucci's name was first suggested for naming the continent in 
1504, i.e.there were 272 years between this and 1776 while there have 
been only 227 since.  In about 1890 Secretary of State James G. Blaine 
was actively promoting the renaming of the United States to commemorate 
Christopher Columbus (having failed to recognize that the citizens of 
New Granada had already claimed this honour). The movement obviously 
failed, despite the fact that at that time Vespucci was being widely but 
wrongfully accused as a thief who had stolen the credit for Columbus's 
discoveries.  Vespucci was a businessman seeking to exploit and bring 
home the riches of foreign lands, and as a Florentine was in a better 
position to be marketed than the Genoan who was alleged to have 
introduced syphilis to Europe.  This all suggests that the United States 
of America is suitably named.  Perhaps we could initiate a movement to 
rename the two continents.

Eclecticology