Do some Americans dislike calling the country as America instead of United States?

27 comments

1. nah

2. I usually just call it the US

3. I don’t think anybody cares.

4. I’ve never heard an American complain about that. Just non-Americans on reddit trying to stir shit up.

   “Why aren’t Brazilians and Canadians called Americans. USA steals everything blah blah blah.”

5. No. The only people I’ve noticed who tend to have an issue with it have been Latin Americans.

6. I don’t care as long as you don’t pull any of that “You’re not american, you’re united statesian” BS.

7. Never heard anyone that cares either way.

8. No. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an American express a dislike or preference for referring to the USA as ‘America,” over “United states.”

9. Only ignorant ones who have been misled to believe it’s offensive or culturally insensitive, ironically by people who are being culturally insensitive by telling a group of people what they should be allowed to call their own country in their own language, just because the same word has a different meaning in *other* languages.

10. Nah, never heard someone from here complain about that. South Americans in particular seem kinda vocal about it on here tho

11. I’ve never heard an American complain about it. We might say “America”, “the United States”, “the United States of America”, “the US”, “the USA”, or “the States” with no prejudice.

12. The only people I have ever experienced having a problem with Americans using the term “Americans“ are Europeans online who were taught that the western hemisphere is comprised of a single continent.

13. “America” is the best term, “US” or “United States” are acceptable.

    If someone even hints that there is something wrong with “America,” the latter two become temporarily unacceptable and I will aggressively and annoyingly call it “America” far more times than I need to until that person goes away.

14. Well, the name of the country is “The United States of America” so no.

    Just like people from “The United Mexican States” don’t dislike calling it Mexico.

15. Nope. Never heard of anyone caring about that.

16. I think the vast majority who don’t like it are from other countries. I’ve never encountered it by a citizen.

17. No, I’ve never heard any American express an opinion on the matter.

    It really pisses of Latin Americans, though, because in Spanish (and Portuguese, I think) “America” refers to the entire hemisphere.

18. I have never heard an American complain, only foreigners trying to find something to argue about.

19. The earliest recorded case of someone from the United States being labeled “American” was by a British dictionary writer. So they somewhat started it.

    We were also the first country in this hemisphere to become independent. So we kind of got the term by default. It isn’t like there was a concerted effort to make “American” mean “citizen of the United States”.

    I could care less if other countries on the two continents wanted to describe themselves as Americans. But they are going to end up clarifying themselves.

    If there was another term to use instead I wouldn’t care, so long as it sounded correct and followed the common convention used for every other country

20. Opposite, actually. I don’t care to listen to people complain that we call it “America” and that we’re “Americans”.

21. Other way around is more common. It’s more people from Latin America who get offended by us saying we’re from “America.” I don’t mind people calling it “the United States” personally, but don’t *force* me to not call it “America.”

    Like, I get it, but also “United Statesian” isn’t a word in English (while the equivalent, from what I understand, is the standard demonym for people from the US in Spanish ~~and Portuguese.~~)

22. The only people I see complaining of that are stupid Latinos (“AmErIcA iS a CoNtInEnT!”). Not even Canadians seem to be bothered.

23. No but I’ve seen it online from non-Americans. It’s really a breathtaking display of arrogance to try to tell us what we should call ourselves.

24. It seems to annoy South Americans but as an American I don’t care.

25. No, unless you’re an edgelord.

    It’s extremely common to use in everyday language, and if someone references “America” or “Americans” those terms are exclusively used to refer to the United States of America as a country and US citizens.

26. Its mostly Latin Americans complaining. I’m still gonna call this country America though.

27. No. The only people who get mad are Latin Americans who either don’t realize or refuse to acknowledge that “America” means something different in English and Spanish.