Why people from the USA call themselves "americans". America is a continent, not a country.?

I never thought of that before.We live in the american continent but we are a part of the untied states of that continent...come to think of it United states really isn't the name of a country its more of a description.I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

Actually North America is a continent. The United States of America IS a country and the residents are Americans.

Just in case you didn't know...the other countries on the continent are Mexico (Mexicans) and Canada (Canadians).

well, back when the "new world" was discovered there was no Canada, U.S. or even Mexico. Europeans referred to the new world as "America", named after the explorer Amerigo Despuechi (? not sure of the spelling).

So, those who populated the new world eventually became known as Americans and that stuck once the United States was established. Why Canadians became Canadians and Mexicans became Mexicans, I don't know. Probably because we United Staters were the big dog on the block.

America is a country too. Get over it.

Did you know that Mexico is the United States of Mexico? Are you going to ask "Why do people from the United States of Mexico call themselves Mexicans?"

It is the only country with "America" right in the name, i.e. the United States of America. Additionally, America is not a continent, North America and South America are.

Whaaaaat?

Where do you live that is not earth? United States of America is a country.

Hence the term, American. If you are not comfortable with the term for whatever reason maybe you should coin your own for us.

Because it's what the people of this CONTINENT have done for as long as history records. It is the choice of the people to do so.

What else should we call ourselves? Unitedians? Statesians? USAians?