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> That is not what the term means

I disagree about that specific point. It’s one of the meanings of “America”, and is used that way throughout the world. From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/America:

1 either continent (North America or South America) of the western hemisphere

2 or the Americas the lands of the western hemisphere including North, Central, and South America and the West Indies

3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Similarly in Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/America#Proper_noun

“In English, the unqualified term "America" often refers to the United States of America as a synecdoche, with "American" typically referring to people and things from that country. […]”

Regarding the gulf naming, “Gulf of North America” would seem somewhat appropriate, if a mouthful.

Colombia is the country in South America. This country was almost named the United States of Columbia at its founding. I like the Spanish translation of Americans being something like Unitedstatesians.

I don't think Google Maps classifying three of the largest countries in the world by area as "sensitive", whatever that is supposed to mean, helps the situation.

Yes Colombia is a country but it also refers to the land that is credited to being discovered by. Columbus. Which is why there are many places named with Colombia outside of the country that has it's name.

Curious that Columbus discovered so many places that already had lots of people in them. I suppose military and colonial might (and disease) have something to do with why his name stuck. Power is the power to make history.

> Unitedstatesians

Frank Lloyd Wright tried to popularize the name "Usonia" for the United States of North (Independent) America:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usonia

Favorite case of that is Europeans making remarks like “Gosh, it’s so annoying when Americans assume Europe is all one country”.

Nah, Europeans don’t say „gosh”, „gosh” is the annoying American way to avoid saying „god”.

"Gosh" is being used as a sarcasm/irony marker here, it's not being used in earnest.

I won't dispute your moral reasoning, but realistically this has as much a chance of succeeding as calling the current year 02025¹: it will mostly just annoy people.

1: Cf. The Long Now Foundation.

The country is spelled Colombia.

> but I do have a problem with Trump and a lot of other people using the term America or American to refer solely to the United States. That is not what the term means and that's not the name of our country.

You're conflating America with the Americas.

The Americas is the collective name of the continents.

America is just shorthand for the United States of America.

Just like Mexico is shorthand for its official name, the United Mexican States.

And there's no confusion because there's basically never any situation where somebody wants to refer themselves as an inhabitant of the Americas, the same way nobody calls themselves Eurasian. It's too large an area to be useful. It's two continents (in most cultures). Geographically at the largest scale, people tend to refer to themselves as North Americans, South Americans, Latin Americans, and so forth.

> You're conflating America with the Americas.

+1. To expand on this point, this is different in English vs. Spanish, which is where a lot of confusion comes from.

In English, America is always the United States, and the Americas is always the continents. American always means United States-ian. There is no word for "someone from anywhere in the Americas".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Americas

In Spanish, traditionally, America is the continents, and Las Americas is nothing. Americano traditionally means "someone from anywhere in the Americas".

However, because of the influence of English, people sometimes use Las Americas to refer to the continents and Americano to refer to United States-ians. So it's a little more complicated in Spanish.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9rica https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Am%C3%A9ricas https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americano_(palabra)

Hemisphere is a half of a sphere, typically we speak about northern and southern hemispheres in context such as the winter and summer being flipped depending on the hemisphere, or the Coriolis Effect etc. At first I thought you refer to America as a hemisphere, because you could divide Earth into two such hemispheres, sharing poles, that one of them is dominated by Americas (land-wise). But then you say "Columbia is also a term to refer to this hemisphere" and I'm lost. I googled "Columbia hemispheres" and couldn't find anything interesting.

I once asked a Canadian if she identifies as American. She did not, in 2014. As a European, I've unfortunately only had the chance to ask that question once. Would love to hear other Canadians' thoughts.

We absolutely do not and never have.

Eh, common usage often precedes official changes. I grew up thinking there was a US state called "Rhode Island", and finally in 2020 that became the reality. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/rhode-island-...

> I don't have a problem with wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America but I do have a problem with Trump and a lot of other people using the term America or American to refer solely to the United States.

"The United States" isn't the name of our country either, does that bother you? Does "US" or "The States?" Those aren't the name of the country either. It isn't in any way exclusionary, it's just a hell of lot shorter and easier to say.

People who call themselves Londoners aren't being exclusionary when they're in the UK anymore than are the Londoners who use that to describe themselves in Canada. They, like Americans in the US, are simply describing what they are, not limiting what other people aren't or can't be.

> We could be called America if we want but someone would have to propose a name change

Who proposed the name change from "tissue paper" to "kleenex"?

Kleenex was a popular brand. It was zeitgeist or cultural momentum. It isnt clear what process would result in a self recognized legal name change of the USA.

Well, not to repeat myself, but when did the self-recognized legal name change of tissue paper take place?

the product formed from taking tree fiber and creating thin sheets of semi-translucent paper, frequently used with a toilet or for blowing one's nose, has no legal name.

> when did the self-recognized legal name change of tissue paper take place?

Gradually, when they didn't enforce their trademark via lawsuits / etc. There's no line in the sand at which point you lose a trademark and it becomes generic. At some point you file suit and fail, or don't even try, and "it is known".