There isn’t much confusion about the term “Americans”. People in Argentina call us Americans too, and they’re in one of the “Americas”. So I don’t agree that it’s ironic to use the term Americans when asking this question. There’s no contention regarding that term, and everyone knows which continent “Americans” reside on.

All I was doing was asking why things were the way they are, not stating that one standard or another should be applied.

The irony I referred to earlier was really Daniel answering his own question with his own usage of the word “Americans.”

This isn’t to say that US is entirely new. Indeed the Dollar sign began as an overlapping US .. this became an S with two vertical lines through it (basically the bottom part of the U disappeared) and now there’s only ONE vertical line (laziness again).

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Anyway, I still find it amusing (in an ironic sort of way) that the word Americans was used in this post.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

On this subject, why does the USA refer to itself as the United States (or US) rather than the United States of America (or USA)?

From the above link,

conventional long form: United States of America conventional short form: United States abbreviation: US or USA

Is it just for brevity or is there something else to it?

aid

1. Russia is as much of a unified ‘country’ as the United States. A federal republic of semi-autonomous subnational entities.

2. Russia’s population distribution is heavily concentrated in the European part of Russia. Map.

3. Moscow, the largest city, is extremely wealthy as compared to the rest of the country. Something like 90% of the wealth in all of Russia exists in Moscow.

4. Wealth and population concentrated in the European part of Russia means that the only media or people we Westerners come in to contact with are usually from that area.

5. There are Asian-looking Russians. A good customer of mine a few years ago was this short, attractive, middle aged woman. Visually, she appeared to be very Chinese. When she spoke, however, it was with a thick Russian accent. After knowing her for some time, she shared her story, which involved emigrating from Vladivostok (Russia’s largest Pacific city) to California.

6. The division between the European and Asian continents is largely artificial (some even claim it has more to do with racism/culturalism versus plate tectonics). The Eurasian Landmass is the more appropriate term, according to the geologist I know.

1) Russia is so large that it’s considered it’s own entity… almost outside of Asia. It also has a different climate and geography.

2) When you say “Asian”, most people think of China, Japan, Korea, etc. — countries in The Orient. Russians don’t fit that mold (which is also why a lot of Americans think Indians are Middle Eastern).

Although Russia may have a large land mass in Asia, what proportion of the population are from the European part? I think it is quite large, hence us considering Russians European – as great many are!

Perhaps if you live in China or Korea you may consider Russians Asian. My wife is Korean; I’ve just asked her and she considers ‘Russians’ as Asian – even the Russian family that lives in our building who are from St Petersberg – who look completely European. For me, as a Brit, they’re just plain European.

I guess for a country of that size you just can’t label people with a continent in that way.

I’m a person, not a continent!!!

aid

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1102275.stm