When US citkzens call themselves American. do you realize that you are not the only Ameericans?

yes, I am certainly aware of this. North America has 3 countries, Central America has 7 or 8 (I forget) and South America has a lot (sorry, I don't know that either).

I think it all started when we called ourselves The United States of America. We were already refered to as "The Americans" in England (since England owned the Colonies and Canada I guess it was a natural thing to do when refering to the far away place. We still do it today when we speak of African or Asian people).

It isn't so much of a stereotype as it is a missuse of words.

It's an idysynchracy of our language (American English). So, relative to someone in the United States, this usage is perfectly and technically correct. Further, there is no other word for citizens of the United States, so -- at the risk of sounding like a smart alec -- what else would we be called then? I suppose we could just go with 'citizens of the United States of America', but that would get long winded. We took the name of the country from the contenent (we are the united states of the Americas). Further, every other country has a proper way of addressing its citiens which, through tradition and history, take precident over 'American'. Canadians, Mexicans and Brazilians could take offense if you called them 'Americans', a name which -- again through history -- has come to mean 'someone from the United States of America'. Also, because of differences between countries, it is usually not polite to lump entire continents of people (such as 'Americans'). Many nationalistic Frenchmen, Italians and Britons would prefer to be called by their respective country rather than 'European'.

I agree with you - people of the Americas - U.S., Canadians, Mexicans, Central and South Americans are technically "American". I'm not sure where this stereotype came from. As my friend said once, "the U.S. is a country without a real name". It's true! Mexico is Mexico, but those people can call themselves American because they are on the American continent. But we are just the "United States".

I call myself an American because I was born on this continent. It is a geographical designation. Europeans are from Europe, Asians from Asia, Africans from Africa. I am a U.S. citizen, because I was born in the United States. If I had been born in Canada, I would be Canadian, and American. I'm sure somebody's going to disagree with this, but it is the way I see myself.

Yes we have mexicans,Indians, and other peoples from around the world want to be American citizens.

I was born in America, does that not make me American? I don't put any identifier in front of it like Antarctican-American that is just plain stupid.

Some do. Most US citizens are ignorant though.