We Americans have no name

This seems to be one of those things that some people get and some people don't. It's like when I explain what a googolplex is, some people just can't wrap their minds around it.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that the term "American" isn't really a proper term to use for the U.S. or for its people. America is a continent. More specifically, it is a set of continents. The word "America" should actually refer to North, Central, and South America. Therefore, an American is really any person from any country in either North, Central, or South America. Likewise, the name United States of America is a rather empty term, since all countries in the Americas fit that description. If this country were instead called The United American States, it would make a little bit more sense. Although, you would still have the issue of using the word "American", which, as I already explained, is improper. Imagine if France called itself The United States of Europe and insisted that it's people be referred to as Europeans. France is, of course, a collection of states just like the U.S., so they have every right to use the term "United States", as do many other countries. The problem would be in adopting the name of its continent to refer to its people. Would the people in other European countries not be European? The root cause of the issue here is that no name was ever invented to refer to the people of the U.S. when this country was formed and so they took the name of the continent that they inhabited. It's rather lazy if you ask me. Take Canada as an example. The word "Canada" refers to that country and that country alone. Likewise, the word "Canadian" refers only to Canada and its people. I happen to know for a fact that many people in other countries in the Americas laugh at us when they here us refer to the U.S. as America or to ourselves as Americans. Many of them instead refer to us as North Americans, which is still inaccurate since Canada and Mexico are also in North America.

So, to throw in a bit of cynicism, is it any wonder that our culture is so fake, when we don't even have a proper name for ourselves?

"Yankee devil"

Hey maybe we could call ourselves that, Yankees. I hadn't thought of that, and I can't really think of another word that exclusively refers to Americans. Sure, some people consider it offensive, but I personally don't. Even seemingly evil words like nigger don't have to be offensive if they're used in the proper context. Nobody gets offended when a black person says it, do they? So I think we "Americans" should from now on be referred to as Yankees. Now, what should we call this country? How about The United Yankee States? Or maybe some kind of noun form of the word Yankee, like Yankland, or Yankia? It may seem like I'm joking, but I'm not. We need to drop the word American and only use it to describe the American continents. The only other logical alternative is to rename the continent, would of course wouldn't be fair.

i completely understand this, and have actually pondered why we have so much pride in calling each other Americans when we aren't referring to the country, but continent.

I feel as if the USA is a strong enough country and leader to adapt this name though.

Perhaps this is an expression of our bravado. No one else matters?