Ron Johnson writes: > The oldest nation[0] in the region gets to pick it's name and > abbreviation. That would be "us". But we didn't. It was the Europeans who attached the label "american" to first residents of the colonies and then to citizens of the United States of America. 18th century "Americans" identified more closely with their states than with the nation. A resident of Virginia would have said "I'm a Virginian", not "I'm an American". -- John Hasler