Who are the Americans? (The USians?)

How does the United States get to Own Everyone's' Name Who Live in the Western Hemisphere?

We in the United States call ourselves “the Americans,” although there are 34 other sovereign countries in the Americas and about 15 dependent territories; hence, accurately, we are the USians.

Note that Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512), from whose name America was derived, probably never visited that part of mainland North America where the United States was later constituted and lived over 275 years before the United States was founded.

Vespucci’s contributions are disputed by some, but the following presentation seems to authoritatively show that he exceeded the works of Columbus: America's True Discover... What’s more is that the German cartographers that first applied America to their new maps, applied it exclusively to what we now call South America.

Also, the full name of our country is The United States of America. We are not all of America as is implied when we refer to ourselves and others refer to us as “the Americans.” It’s really nonsensical. It might also constitute jingoism and conceit and chauvinism.

I have heard British and Russian and English and Norwegian geopolitical scholars (who I greatly respect) refer to USians as “the Americans” many times. A Russian emigrant who I consider very astute talked of acquiring his “American citizenship.” There is no such country known as America that offers a citizenship or that grants passports.

I hear journalists refer to “the American president” as if there is only one. At any given time, Columbia has a president. So do Brazil, Cuba, The Republic of Haiti, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and several other American countries. Ah, you mean to say, the US president or the President of the United States.

We in the United States have been incredibly successful at getting the entire world to regard us as the singular American entity in the entire western hemisphere. The United States is American but it is not America. US ≠ America. Calling the US America is like calling Russia Eurasia.

According to Mother Jones: When Did the US Start Calling Itself "America", George Washington did not use the term, America, in his inaugural address or in his farewell address. And it did not seem to come into vogue until the 20th century. [Note that Mother Jones makes the common bounding mistake in stating, “The Americas stretch from Canada to South America’s southern cone.” This language technically excludes Canada and South America’s southern cone from the Americas. Note my article, From Here to There.]

Many people assert that they are American citizens. This is incorrect. There are no citizens of America because there is no country named America. There are citizens in America but not of America. They are denizens of America, not citizens of America.

For example, I am a denizen of America who is a citizen of the United States.

So what should we in the United States call ourselves?

My belief on the USians moniker is that the U and the S are to be pronounced separately as in U-S-ians. Hence, this is why the S is in upper case and the US in USians is not to sound like the pronoun, us.

Also, I believe that USans does not work if the S is to be pronounced separately as explained just previously. Inclusion of the i is a needed bridge to the an as in Canadian and Brazilian. Note that the i is unnecessary in endings like that of Texan and Cuban and is already built into endings like in Californian and Indian.

Another idea might be to put er onto the US to derive USer as we do with New Yorker, etc. To my ear, this solution is disgusting, slightly more so than what I propose (USian).

Nevertheless, the USian(s) moniker, although accurate and consistent, is somewhat awkward and foreign to the ear. The ideal approach would be to change the foundation of the wording… that is to change the name of the United States. [I don’t see this happening.]

Many readers might remember Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story wherein the song, America, the newly arrived Puerto Ricans in New York City sang the following lyrics:

I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
Ev'rything free in America
For a small fee in America!

Automobile in America,
Chromium steel in America,
Wire-spoke wheel in America,
Very big deal in America!

They did not perceive themselves as already American when they lived in Puerto Rico.

But the next chorus is:

Immigrant goes to America,
Many hellos in America;
Nobody knows in America
Puerto Rico's in America!

So Bernstein states the truth (or part of it ) of the matter! Wow! Of course, Puerto Rico was/is a U.S. territory; however, it is also part of the totality of the Americas. How much of this Bernstein grasps of the total truth, I do not know.

Another distinction: America is a place. The United States is A country inside that place. The United States is not THE country inside that place.

A reversed situation is exemplified by several of the United States’ territories like Wake Island or the Mariana Islands or Guam or American Samoa. Some of these are not in any of the Americas or even in the western hemisphere.

So we have The United States of America. As a county name, why not have Cuba of America? Why not have Canada of America? What about Brazil of America? What about Mexico of America? What about Venezuela of America?… and so forth?

And should all the other countries of the Americas get blamed by extension and association of their name with what most of the world now considers to be the most corrupt country on the planet?

Recently (June 18, 2024), I heard one of the most respected geopolitical experts pose the question: “Let’s see what the Americans will say.” We all know which Americans he was referring to. It’s the ones who hog the name.

[In 1974, I began my journey into this topic when I attended classes at the McMurry College extension on Dyess Air Force Base. There, I read a book about myth in American history. Although I greatly enjoyed the book and the course, I did not bother to read the introduction until several years later.

Therein, the author aptly explained that the phrases American or un-American or pro-American or anti-American are meaningless terms on virtue of the fact that they have an infinite number of meanings.

I’m ashamed to admit that I have since lost the book and do not remember its title or its author’s name.]

An alternative narrative to the Vespucci argument is that of Richard Amerike. There are others; however, none of these seem to carry the respect as that of the Vespucci.

Books by Ken Hutchins