First, America is a badass name. I’ve always been envious you guys kinda monopolized that term because America/American just sounds so fucking good IMO. Anyways, you guys live in a country called “The United States of America”. How do you guys feel about that name? It’s a weird name for a nation, bit of a mouthful.
I would say that it would create a lack of identity but clearly thats not true at all. I think when choosing the USA’s name, they wanted to come up with an actual, singular, unique word that encompasses the country. Columbia was one, Freedonia was the other. The United States of America is an odd name for a nation. Anyways, I’m curious what Americans think of the name (fr tho, “Canadian” just isn’t as cool sounding as “American”)
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I don’t have and strong feelings for “American” but I think I would almost prefer it to live in a country with one definite name. “The United States” “The US” “America” etc, doesn’t really bug me too much but I guess one definite name wouldn’t be a bad thing.
I mean…it’s a description of the country, which is what a name is supposed to do, no?
United States of America because we are a country of different states in a union…
Canada’s full official name as recognized by the UN is…Canada. Not exactly hard to be very different from that.
It’s a bit annoying when random people criticize us for just calling ourselves “American” when there’s several other American countries, both North and South. Saying that I’m a “United States of American” does not sound good or make much sense. That’s really the only issue i have, is that there’s not a singular agreed upon term that isn’t criticized for being to vague even though at this point we have the term pretty monopolized.
Also always thought it was odd that the Americas were named after Vespucci’s first name instead of last name but i guess Vespuccian sounds kinda weird, too.
Keep in mind, a lot of the association of ‘America’ sounding strong and dignified comes from the country’s status internationally, not the other way around. America sounds strong because America is strong. If we were called Freedonia instead, that name would today have the same connotation
The *United States of America* is a completely normal name for a nation, it’s just the formal long form of the name. The short form is United States or America or the US/USA.
Other examples:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The Federal Republic of Germany
The People’s Republic of China
The United Mexican States
The Islamic Republic of Iran
Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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It’s Canada that’s the odd one out here.
We’re a bunch of opinionated, bullheaded, idiosyncratic states with wildly different personalities, and each state is made up of wildly different cities and communities. So calling us “united” states is a bit of a stretch, especially nowadays.
It’s fine. I really don’t think that much about it mostly. It is what it is.
Maybe we should have been the Federal Democratic Republic of America, or the Grand Duchy of America, or the Principality of America
>you guys live in a country called “The United States of America”. How do you guys feel about that name? It’s a weird name for a nation, bit of a mouthful. I would say that it would create a lack of identity but clearly thats not true at all. I think when choosing the USA’s name, they wanted to come up with an actual, singular, unique word that encompasses the country. Columbia was one, Freedonia was the other. The United States of America is an odd name for a nation. Anyways, I’m curious what Americans think of the name (fr tho, “Canadian” just isn’t as cool sounding as “American”)
Eh, it’s not anymore odd than:
* United Mexican States
* The Czech Republic (I refuse to recognize Czechia’s legitimacy, either reunite with Slovakia or keep the Czech Republic’s name as “The Czech Republic”, Czechia is just stupid)
* The Philippines
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
* Kingdom of Belgium
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Pretty much any of the former USSR states when they part of the USSR
* Republic of the Marshall Islands
* Republic of the Union of Myanmar
* Islamic Republic of Pakistan
* Independent State of Papua New Guinea
* Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis
* Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
Most countries have proper names that are a mouthful. Many are better than others. The most common one seems to be “Republic of X” or some variation. Some are really bad, like the UK, Myanmar, any of the former USSR states when they were part of the USSR, etc. The US is kind of middle of the road for name length.
The Founders named it the United States of America because that was the best descriptor for it. It was a collection of states in former British-America who joined together to form a country with a federal government to act as the glue to keep the Union of states together and local state governments to deal with local matters.
America sounds badass because of the country’s status and reputation abroad – I don’t think it’s anything with the name in particular.
I’m glad you like the name! I agree with you that it’s a bit unusual, and it’s unfortunate that the only part that you can naturally shorten it to is also the name of the continent(s). Probably would be better if we were Columbia or Washingtonia or something like that.
Bear in mind, at the time of the nation’s founding the relationship between the states was much looser, and the central government much weaker, than today. Many people considered their state to be their country, which was a member of a wider association of American states. It was closer to a confederation than a nation.
Many countries have long proper names. Three examples are The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, and Republic of India. Our individual states have a bit more power than some other federal governments in the world allow. I think our name fits.
A bit of a mouthful? Unlike
Pluronational State of Bolivia.
United Mexican States.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Federative Republic of Brazil.
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Federal Republic of Germany.
the Republic of South Africa.
Etc, etc
Hell, even you guys are actually Dominion of Canada.
“America” was thrust on us more than it was claimed by us. The early inhabitants of the US were much more apt to refer to themselves as a Virginian or a New Yorker than an American. I think “America” and “American” seeped into the lexicon largely through immigrants who arrived having fulfilled their ambition of “going to America.”
I would be down if someone proposed a name that forms the acronym TNT, if we could also change our national anthem to that AC/DC song.
I’m happy with it. Especially since it is like the one nation anyone in the world can name offhand.