A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, state, country, continent, planet, and beyond).
Demonyms are used to designate all people (the general population) of a particular place, regardless of ethnic, linguistic, religious or other cultural differences that may exist within the population of that place. Examples of demonyms include ''Cochabambino'', for someone from the city of
Cochabamba; French for a person from France; and ''
Swahili'', for a person of the
Swahili coast.
As a sub-field of
anthroponymy
Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'' / 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'' / 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and ...
, the study of demonyms is called ''demonymy'' or ''demonymics''.
Since they are referring to territorially defined groups of people, demonyms are
semantically different from
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and us ...
s (names of
ethnic groups). In the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
, there are many
polysemic words that have several meanings (including demonymic and ethnonymic uses), and therefore a particular use of any such word depends on the context. For example, the word ''Thai'' may be used as a demonym, designating any inhabitant of
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
, while the same word may also be used as an ethnonym, designating members of the
Thai people
Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย; '' endonym''), Central Thai people ( th, คนภาคกลาง, sou, คนใต้, ตามโพร; ''exonym and also domestically'') or Siamese ( th, ชาวสยาม; ''historical exonym an ...
. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms. For example, a native of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
may be called a ''
British person
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...
'', a ''Briton'' or, informally, a ''Brit''.
Some demonyms may have several meanings. For example, the demonym ''Macedonians'' may refer to the population of
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
, or more generally to the entire population of the
region of Macedonia, a portion of which is in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
. In some languages, a demonym may be borrowed from another language as a nickname or descriptive adjective for a group of people: for example, ''Québécois'', ''Québécoise (female)'' is commonly used in English for a native of the province or city of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
(though ''Quebecer'', ''Quebecker'' are also available).
In English, demonyms are always
capitalized.
Often, demonyms are the same as the adjectival form of the place, e.g. ''Egyptian'', ''
Japanese'', or ''
Greek''.
English commonly uses national demonyms such as ''Ethiopian'' or ''Guatemalan'', while the usage of local demonyms such as ''
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
an'', ''
Okie'' or ''
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
ian'' is less common. Many local demonyms are rarely used and many places, especially smaller towns and cities, lack a commonly used and accepted demonym altogether. Often, in practice, the demonym for
states,
provinces or
cities is simply the name of the place, treated as an adjective; for instance, ''
Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man and Ancient One are the names generally given to the skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleoamerican man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, on July 28, 1996. It is one of the most complete ancient ske ...
'' or ''
Kentucky State Police''.
Etymology
''
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
'' attributes the term ''demonym'' to
Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster, Inc. is an American company that publishes reference books and is especially known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States.
In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as ...
editor
Paul Dickson in a work from 1990. The word did not appear for nouns, adjectives, and verbs derived from geographical names in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary nor in prominent style manuals such as the ''
Chicago Manual of Style''. It was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book ''Labels for Locals''. However, in ''What Do You Call a Person From...? A Dictionary of Resident Names'' (the first edition of ''Labels for Locals'') Dickson attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his ''Names' Names: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon'' (1988),
which is apparently where the term first appears. The term may have been fashioned after ''demonymic'', which the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'' defines as the name of an
Athenian
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
citizen
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
according to the
deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...
to which the citizen belongs, with its first use traced to 1893.
Suffixation
Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
. The most common is to add a
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. These may resemble
Late Latin
Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...
,
Semitic,
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foo ...
, or
Germanic suffixes, such as ''-(a)n'', ''-ian'', ''-anian'', ''-nian'', ''-in(e)'', ''-a(ñ/n)o/a'', ''-e(ñ/n)o/a'', ''-i(ñ/n)o/a'', ''-ite'', ''-(e)r'', ''-(i)sh'', ''-ene'', ''-ensian'', ''-ard'', ''-ese'', ''-nese'', ''-lese'', ''-i(e)'', ''-i(ya)'', ''-iot'', ''-iote'', ''-k'', ''-asque'', ''-(we)gian'', ''-onian'', ''-vian'', ''-ois(e)'', or ''-ais(e)''.
Prefixation
It is much rarer to find Demonyms created with a prefix. Mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of a particular ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the
Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, and the language,
Kiluba
Luba-Katanga, also known as Luba-Shaba and ''Kiluba'' ( lu, Kiluba), is a Bantu language ( Zone L) of Central Africa. It is spoken mostly in the south-east area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Luba people.
Kiluba is spoken in the ...
or
Tshiluba. Similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti (Viti being the Fijian name for
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...
). On a country level:
*
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...
→ Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)
*
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...
→ Umurundi (singular), Abarundi (plural)
*
Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
→ Liswati (singular), Emaswati (plural)
*
Lesotho → Mosotho (singular), Basotho (plural)
Non-standard examples
Demonyms may also not conform to the underlying naming of a particular place, but instead arise out of historical or cultural particularities that become associated with its denizens. In the United States such demonyms frequently become associated with regional pride such as the burqueño of
Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...
,
or with the mascots of intercollegiate sports teams of the
state university system, take for example the
sooner of
Oklahoma and the
Oklahoma Sooners
The Oklahoma Sooners are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, Oklahoma, Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early part ...
.
Ethnonyms
Since names of places, regions and countries (
toponyms
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
) are
morphologically often related to names of ethnic groups (
ethnonyms
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and ...
), various ethnonyms may have similar, but not always identical, forms as terms for general population of those places, regions or countries (demonyms).
Fiction
Literature and science fiction have created a wealth of gentilics that are not directly associated with a cultural group. These will typically be formed using the standard models above. Examples include ''
Martian'' for hypothetical people of
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
(credited to scientist
Percival Lowell), ''Gondorian'' for the people of
Tolkien's fictional land of
Gondor
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age. The third volume of ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Return of the King'', is largely ...
, and ''Atlantean'' for
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
's island
Atlantis.
Other science fiction examples include ''
Jovian'' for those of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...
or its moons and ''
Venusian'' for those of
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
. Fictional aliens refer to the inhabitants of Earth as ''
Earthling'' (from the
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A ( abbreviated ) is a word-form ...
''-ling'', ultimately from
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
''-ing'' meaning "descendant"), as well as ''
Terran'', ''Terrene'', ''Tellurian'', ''Earther'', ''Earthican'', ''Terrestrial'', and ''Solarian'' (from ''Sol'', the sun).
Fantasy literature which involves other worlds or other lands also has a rich supply of gentilics. Examples include ''Lilliputians'' and ''Brobdingnagians'', from the islands of
Lilliput and
Brobdingnag in the satire ''
Gulliver's Travels''.
In a few cases, where a linguistic background has been
constructed, non-standard gentilics are formed (or the eponyms back-formed). Examples include Tolkien's ''
Rohirrim'' (from
Rohan), the ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' franchise's ''
Klingons'' (with various names for their homeworld), and the
Sangheili
The ''Halo'' video game and media franchise takes place in a fictional science fiction universe. In the distant past, a race known as the Forerunners fought the parasitic Flood. The Forerunners ultimately activate weapons of mass destruction, th ...
from the ''
Halo'' franchise, (also known as Elites in the game by humans, as well as players) named after their homeworld o
Sanghelios
See also
*
List of adjectival and demonymic forms of place names
**
List of adjectivals and demonyms for astronomical bodies
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
**
List of adjectivals and demonyms for continental regions
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for subcontinental regions
**
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for Australia
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for Canada
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for Cuba
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for India
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for Malaysia
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for Mexico
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for New Zealand
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories ...
**
List of adjectivals and demonyms for former regions
The following is a list of adjectival forms of former regions in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these former regions.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove th ...
***
List of adjectivals and demonyms for Greco-Roman antiquity
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
**
List of adjectivals and demonyms for fictional regions
The following is a partial list of adjectival forms of place names in English and their demonymic equivalents, which denote the people or the inhabitants of these places.
Note: Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the ...
*
List of regional nicknames
*
Macedonia naming dispute
The use of the country name " Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Western Balkans for 25 years. It was resolved t ...
*
Nationality
Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of t ...
*
-onym, especially
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and us ...
and
Exonym and endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
External links
www.geography-site.co.ukAlphabetical list of world demonyms.
www.everything2.comDemonyms of the World.
www.peoplefrom.co.ukDemonyms of the United Kingdom.
{{Ethnicity
Semantics
Types of words