Unexpected names for citizens

We gain labels based on where we live. Usually the town, city, province, state or country name gains a suffix such as -ian, -ese, -er, -i, -n, -ish or –ite.

To keep things interesting, there are some odd exceptions. For example, residents of Cyprus are called Cypriots. Doesn’t that sound like something a flash mob might incite?

Why do we refer to people from the Netherlands or Holland as the Dutch?
How about residents of Smithers, British Columbia…they are called Smithereens (As in blown to bits?)

Then there are Michiganders. Sounds like geese to me, but they form the masses of Michigan.

Here are others that don’t quite fit the mould:

  • Mascoutan (Saint-Hyacinthe, QC) – Huh?
  • Haligonian (Halifax, NS)
  • Monégasque (Monaco)
  • Novocastrian (Newcastle)
  • Filipino (Philippines) – What’s with substituting an F for the Ph and where did the double PPs go?
  • Glaswegian (Glasgow)
  • Finn (Finland) – No suffix required. Why not just lop off part of the name?
One of my favourites names has to be Liverpudlians for the residents of Liverpool. Kiwi is also an endearing colloquialism for people in New Zealand. (May those earthquakes and aftershocks end soon.)

However you slice these demonyms (names for residents or citizens), I consider them to be rather

AWESOME!

So, are you fond of any particular demonyms?

Comments

  1. AnonymousFriday, February 25, 2011 6:57:00 am

    I was a Sydneysider (hence an honorary Aussie) for eight years. [Sidebar: that double ess in Aussie is pronounced like a zed. As is the double ess in cossie (short for costume = swimming costume = swimsuit).]

    While in England I was a Cantabrigian (I lived in Cambridge) as I had declined to be an Oxonian (they live in Oxford). I was accepted by the University of Birmingham, too, so I could have attended the Shakespeare Institute, but I didn’t fancy being a Brummie.

    FYI Liverpudlians do not usually refer to themselves as such. They are Scousers, and proud of it. There is a great rivalry between Scousers and Mancunians in soccer – you can be either for Liverpool FC or Manchester United, but not both!

    Lorna

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownThursday, August 25, 2011 8:51:00 am

    Not sure what to call someone from a particular place? Refer to Stewart's Laws of Municipal Onomastics, which tell you whether to add -an, -er or something else to the end of a place name. Link courtesy of Daily Writing Tips.

    Thanks to Mark Nichol, the author of that post, I found out that people from Connecticut are fondly called Nutmeggers. Love it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Readers' faves

Any excuse to celebrate (my guest post on 1000 Awesome Friends)

Image
I originally posted the rambling below as my first guest blog entry on 1000AwesomeFriends.org , but I'm also re-posting the text here, where it is searchable. (I've written so many posts that the only way I can only avoid repeats by searching my own site to see if I've written about a topic or simply thought about writing about that subject.) Has your birthday come and gone? Are there no statutory holidays on your horizon? There’s no need to wait for a day off from school or work to let loose and shake things up a bit. Just go ahead, pick a festivity from another nation or culture, then find your own way to mark that occasion. As it is, people around the world wear shamrocks, listen to Irish tunes, and eat and drink green food colouring on March 17th. Do we all have ties to Ireland? No, but that doesn’t stop us from whooping it up on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s easy to find something to celebrate. Take today for example, it’s Cinco de Mayo. That party is no longer just
Read more

Retweets for mental health

Image
In five-cent increments, the twitterverse buzzed with tweets that will make millions of dollars flow to support mental health.  From a social-media metrics perspective, the #BellLetsTalk (French version #BellCause) garnered impressive reach, which rivalled #SOTU for President Obama's State of the Union address. Even by adding the long form (#stateoftheunion), as of this morning there was only a five-million gap between the BellLetsTalk hashtag and the State of the Union hashtags. Impressive. How did it happen? Collective thanks to major leaguers, mobile technology, multitudes of do-gooders and an annual marketing campaign for all the activity on January 28, 2014.  Entertainers like William Shatner, Jann Arden and Ellen Degeneres encouraged their fans to retweet the #BellLetsTalk messages about mental health. Thousands upon thousands of followers responded. Millions in all. Who else helped the cause? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. Olympian Clara Hughes. NHL franchis
Read more

Ironing boards with quiet mechanisms

Image
Have you ever used an ironing board with a silent opening mechanism? All the ironing boards I've owned or borrowed have shrieked as though cats were being tortured by the fires of Hell. I can imagine that an ironing board with a quiet mechanism, which doesn't wake up people four houses away, would be AWESOME!
Read more