The old thread about how the English haven't got a national anthem of their own, and discussing suggestions, has surfaced again.

It set me thinking of a similar issue relating to the USA. Not about national anthems, the USA has more than enough of those, but about how its people should be referred to.

It's the only country I can think of where there isn't really a special and exclusive name for term for its inhabitants. The French are French, the Jamaicans are Jamaicans, and so forth round the world. The English sometimes get confused whether they are English or British, but that's a different issue.

But the people of the USA are what? "Americans" is the respectful term. But there are all these other people from the Americas who are also entitled to be called that. There's "Yanks", but that is as likely to be hostile as friendly, more especially in its Spanish form, "Yanqui". - and it doesn't go down well in parts of the USA either.

So do people in the USA ever wish they had a name all of their own?