Indeed, U.S.A. is not America!
America is the name of a whole continent. United States of America means that the United States belongs to America and NOT that America belongs to the United States. So, next time you want to refer to The United States of America, you can do it as U.S. or the States or whatever you want but not as only America. Gotcha?
How should I use the term America then?
Here we will show you some wrong and correct uses of the term America:
This is how we do it in America.
This is how we do it in the States.
- America is my country and I love it.
- The United States is my country and I love it.
- America lost the Vietnam war.
- U.S.A. lost the Vietnam war.
- Here in America we love Mc Donald's.
- Here in the U.S. we love Mc Donald's.
Please, note that this page in not about demonyms (gentilics) but about the way to call a country.
Add Comment
These terms and conditions contain rules about posting comments. By submitting a comment, you are declaring that you agree with these rules:
- Although the administrator will attempt to moderate comments, it is impossible for every comment to have been moderated at any given time.
- You acknowledge that all comments express the views and opinions of the original author and not those of the administrator.
- You agree not to post any material which is knowingly false, obscene, hateful, threatening, harassing or invasive of a person's privacy.
- The administrator has the right to edit, move or remove any comment for any reason and without notice.
Failure to comply with these rules may result in being banned from further commenting.
These terms and conditions are subject to change at any time and without notice.
Comments (65)
See... The thing is that there are two conventions of the continents. In the U.S. and other countries, people are taught that North and South America are two different continents. While in many other countries, America (what people in the U.S. call "The Americas") represents a continent as whole. The reason why America is the one single continent (as this page points out) is because after Christopher Columbus discovered America (accidentally), there was a Italian cartographer named "Americus Vespucci" who was the first to draw a map of the what was then considered "The New World." It was after him that the the "New World" was named America. Articles at the time referred to it as America too. I suspect this is why the U.S. was named the United States of America and not the United States of North America.
God bless all the United Statians, whether ignorant, arrogant or smart. We are all human beings. :)
The constitution of the United States begins with: "We the people of the United States, in Order to form... and a little bit after says "this Constitution for the United States of America..." (and as far as I know, there is no "America" written alone in the constitution).
The lectern of the U.S. president reads: seal of the president of the United States (there is no "America" written there).
There are also the U.S. Army, U.S.A.F. and U.S. Navy, not the America Army, America Air Force or America Navy, and the same for every other institutional and government area, why don’t they include America as part of their name? Even the U.S.’s anthem makes no mention to “America” at all.
Haha, I get where you're coming from but it's just called that because it's really badly named. Some folks back a long time ago decided to name their country after the entire continent and there's really nothing anyone can do about that any more. America is the only part of the United States of America's name that is an actual name, so it's really all it can be called. I do like Estadounidenses, but that doesn't translate well to english, so calling them "Americans" is probably here to stay.
The United States is NOT America. It is part of America. That is why when you look at a world map and look at North America you will see Canada, Mexico, United States or United States of America or Us or USA but never America and that is because it's Not the name of the country.
If our government actually still operated as intended and as our Constitution says this wouldn't even be a discussion, because we'd be called Georgians, Virginians, New Yorkers, Californians, etc. The whole point of our Constitution is that it's an agreement among sovereign states to simply agree to a handful of specific things that made more sense if they were uniform in every state (currency, post office, etc.) and to provide a means to prevent and/or mediate trade disputes between states. The term United States itself was intended to be more a description than a name and that's why we don't have some snazzy name for our country.
Incidentally, two of your examples above are meant to demean. We're not all a bunch of fat slobs who suck down Mickey-D's every day. Many of us are highly educated people who work hard and take care of our families and others. We don't take kindly to outsiders telling us what to do. (And if you're a "Unitedstatesian," why do you hate yourself?) Also, did it occur to you to maybe choose one of many wars we won or the freedom we've helped so many achieve in your examples? Nope; go straight for Vietnam. Who are you? I can find no reference to who owns this site. Are you Toby Lester? Whoever you are, you may be surprised to learn that I'm a huge, huge liberal on most topics. I don't support Donald Trump. I don't subscribe to a nationalist mentality. I believe the world should be working together. But nobody tells the USA how to self-identify, and nobody cuts on us without me stepping in to say, "Back off."
Seems to me this is someone who actually knows more about our country than the average American. Your reaction is just false patriotism.
Just because you get upset about a couple of examples doesn't mean that their intent was to demean. Maybe instead you should be getting upset about people in this country not knowing its name or thinking a symbolic pledge or anthem is patriotic, despite completely ignoring or trampling on the Constitution which is the basis of what those things are SUPPOSED to represent to us.
While "North America" is the continent, in this case, "America" is also a part of our country's name: United States of America. (You're focusing on "of" but America is also part of our name.) However arrogant you regard our use of "America" and "Americans," we decide what to call ourselves. We are NOT United States-ers. We are Americans. Yes, I'm aware that Canada & Mexico are part of the continent of North America, and there are the countries of Central America and South America to consider. However, we're not talking about them. We're talking about a shortened form of our full name. You don't get to decide what we're called or eliminate part of our name.
If other countries called themselves Brazil America or Peru America (for example), you'd have an argument because then we'd need to distinguish. But the good folks of such countries are happy and PROUD to be known as Brazilians, Peruvians, etc. They don't want to be known as Americans. And furthermore, however you feel about us, we in the United States of America are proud to be known as Americans. Also, why did you drop "America" from "United States" in the pulldown menu of countries? We are the United States of America -- regardless of how you feel about it. Don't eliminate part of our LEGAL name just because it doesn't suit you. Thanks for the opportunity to respond.
What would the United States be called? if in North America you had Canada of America, United States of America and Mexico of America? and what would the United states citizen be called then?
Of America is a reference is where The United States is. And if the founding fathers of the Unites States realized that America was as big as it is and that they where in North America then The name would have been called The United States of North America. And using of America as America is not a shorted name. US or USA is shorted form name of The United States of America or actually - The United States of North America.
If a Latin American said "I am American," said Latin American wouldn't be wrong. I'm going to call the USA Usonia, from Esperanto Usono.
The "America" after "United states of" is only referrering to the whole continent of America, so why would you use America to refer to your country, when it originally and still only stands for the continent? Please tell me where's the highly educated thinking un that? It's simple stuff really.
That is incorrect.The name of the country is United States. Of America is not part of the name, but simply specifying where these United States are. That's why you will find no official title or agency named United States of America Department of ... USA as used by the Army stands for United States Army. It's not USAA.
It's really pathetic we have so many people in this country who call themselves patriots but know little to nothing about its name, history and Constitution.
Of America is not part of the name. United States is not a shortened version. The name is simply United States. You suggest you are highly educated. You are obviously not highly educated in U.S. history. If you were to talk to someone who is highly educated in U.S. history they would tell you that you are wrong.
I agree.
*****.
If you refer to anyone from one of the other countries in the western hemisphere as an American, they will quickly and vociferously correct you. They will tell they are not Americans, rather they are a proud citizen of the nation they are from.
They do not identify as Americans. They identify as a citizen of their nation. They are proud of their nationality.
There is only one America. The United States of America. The only people who are Americans are citizens of the United States of America.
Not if they speak Spanish.
That’s not true, technically they are American since their country is in the Americas. Like Chinese people are Asian since their country is on the continent of Asia. Whether they like it or not they still are American
Have you ever talked to someone from here? Everyone from America are american. And we're don't refuse to be called by "americans" this is something from your mind. Xoxo
Do (so-called) americans even know who was Américo Vespucio?
Yes, Nico, we do. We're educated, but thanks for checking.
We aren't as educated as you think. Not correctly anyway. After actually reading the writings of our founding fathers, I learned that we get a dumbed down and innacurate education of our own history for at least our first 12 years of school.
America goes beyond the geographic limits of what the worldwide ignorance and what the US people have been calling the United States. In top of that, the US Person, considering themselves as the only Americans.
The latter sounds arrogant, imperialist and racists.