The Names of Nationalities

Ever wonder what to call someone from a different country? Most nationality words are formed with a portion of the name of the country, with suffixes -an, -ean, -ian, or -ese added, but which goes with which name, and which don't follow any such pattern? (See Greece and Cyprus, for instance.) This list provides the demonym (the name given to the people of a place) for each of the countries of the world. (Taiwan, not recognized as a country officially by the United Nations, is also included in this list.) Demonyms can also be used to refer to people of other types of places, such as state or city inhabitants, but that is outside the scope of this article.

Contrast demonym, the natives or inhabitants of a particular place, with ethnonym, which refers to people of a particular ethnic group. When locations with strong ethnic identity come under one nation's umbrella, using the overall demonym might not be a person's preferred term. For example, those in Northern Iraq who are of the Kurdish heritage and want independence for Kurdistan, would likely rather prefer to be called Kurds than Iraqis. The Irish and Scottish residents of the U.K. might not prefer to be called Britons but Irish and Scots.

Interestingly enough, the first known usage of the term demonym in this way was only in 1990. It had previously been used, in the mid-19th century, to note a descriptive term that was used by a writer as a pen name. The first part of the word, dem- (meaning "the people") also forms words such as demographics, and -onym is all about names and words.