I don’t like the US being called ‘America’

I don’t like it when people refer to the US as ‘America’, but, because I’m not totally sure why I have this reaction, I decided to explore the topic. 

United States of America is an awkward name for a country

Before addressing my poor reaction to ‘America’, we must acknowledge that the United States of America is a very unfortunate and awkward name for a country. Why couldn’t the US founding fathers have come up with a better name? 

Most countries have a single word name that works well in all contexts and doesn’t offend other people living on the same continent. People living in Canada are Canadian. People living in Germany are German. People living in China are Chinese. There is no confusion between Mexico and North America. There is no confusion between France and Europe. There is no confusion between India and Asia.

However, with USA, it is pretty much impossible to call the people anything but Americans (USians?). And referring to the country as ‘America’ offends the 671 million people who live in the other countries in the Americas. 

Americans are stuck with a dysfunctional country name. Maybe they’ve just done the best they can after being dealt a bad hand by the US founding fathers? 

Until recently, the USA wasn’t usually called ‘America’

I’m Canadian. I’ve always referred to the big country to south as ‘the US’ or ‘the States’, or maybe the ‘the USA’. I call the people who live in our neighbouring country ‘Americans’, but I don’t call the country ‘America’.

My impression is that, until recently anyhow, Americans referred to their country the same way — the US, the States or the USA. Even Bruce Springsteen says ‘Born in the USA’, and who is more qualified to define American values than the Boss?.

The US is called ‘America’ elsewhere in the world

My sense is that the USA has been known as ‘America’ in much of the world for a long time. Irish literature and oral history references ‘America’ as the land of opportunity and escape. This is probably true in other parts of ‘the old country’, too. 

In my experience travelling in Europe, local people have often asked ‘what part of America are you from?’. This is annoying in two ways — people assuming I’m from the US as well as referring to the US as ‘America’. 

I don’t think people in Latin America refer to the US as ‘America’, although the term ‘Americano’ is common. 

I think people from Australia and New Zealand mostly refer to the US or the USA as opposed to ‘America’.

My guess is that ‘America’ is a common term for the USA in Asia and Africa. 

When did the US become ‘America’ in the US?

My hunch is that Americans started referring to their country as ‘America’ more frequently perhaps thirty years ago. The terminology got a huge and, in my mind, unwanted boost with Trump’s MAGA nonsense a few years ago. 

However, after reading about the topic, I’ve learned that the popularity of ‘America’ rose in direct relation to US imperialist ambitions that came to fruition after the war with Spain in 1898. From the dawning of the twentieth century until now, the attitude of American politicians and, by extension, the population at large is that there was no need to be careful about using the term ‘America’ to refer to the USA because the heedless use of ‘America’ matched the presumptuous and expansionist national character.

Why calling the US ‘America’ bothers me

So why does is bother me that people (including Americans and Canadians) increasingly use the term ‘America’ when referring to the United States of America?

It’s partly because ‘America’ refers to two continents as well as a country as explained earlier.

It’s also because the term ‘America’ is new to me and, like just about everyone, I don’t like to be forced to change.

It’s probably also because it seems like just another way that the US dominates the world.

Final thoughts

Now that I’ve explored this little annoyance, I think I’ll just let it go. As I said earlier, calling the US ‘America’ is the best we can do with a country that has been saddled with an unfortunate and unwieldy name. 

Do you think I’ve adopted the best attitude for this irritant? Do you have anything to add?