A demonym (; ) or 'gentilic' () is a word that identifies a group of

people The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

( inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

of the place ( hamlet,

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

, province, state,

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

, and

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

). 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; Tunisian for a person from Tunisia; and '' Swahili'', for a person of the Swahili coast. Many demonyms function both endonymically and exonymically (used by the referents themselves or by outsiders); others function only in one of those ways. As a sub-field of anthroponymy, the study of demonyms is called ''demonymy'' or ''demonymics''. Since they are referring to territorially defined groups of people, demonyms are semantically different from ethnonyms (names of ethnic groups). In the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

, 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, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, while the same word may also be used as an ethnonym, designating members of the Thai people. 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

may be called a '' British person'', 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, or more generally to the entire population of the region of Macedonia, a portion of which is in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. 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 is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

(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. ''

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian'', '' Japanese'', or '' Greek''. However, they are not necessarily the same, as exemplified by Spanish instead of Spaniard or British instead of Briton. English commonly uses national demonyms such as ''Brazilian'' or ''Algerian'', while the usage of local demonyms such as ''

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

an'', '' Okie'' or ''

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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.

Etymology

'' National Geographic'' attributes the term ''demonym'' to Merriam-Webster 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 principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' defines, as the name of an Athenian citizen according to the deme to which the citizen belongs, with its first use traced to 1893.

Suffixation

Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the

. The most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. These may resemble Late Latin, Semitic, Celtic, 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 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, 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 consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

). On a country level: * Botswana → Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural) * Burundi → Umurundi (singular), Abarundi (plural) * Eswatini → Liswati (singular), Emaswati (plural) *

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

→ 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 "''Burqueño''" and the feminine "''Burqueña''" of Albuquerque, or with the mascots of intercollegiate sports teams of the state university system, take for example the sooner of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Sooners.

Ethnonyms

Since names of places, regions and countries ( toponyms) are morphologically often related to names of ethnic groups ( ethnonyms), 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 (credited to scientist Percival Lowell), ''Gondorian'' for the people of Tolkien's fictional land of Gondor, and ''Atlantean'' for

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's island Atlantis. Other science fiction examples include '' Jovian'' for those of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

or its moons and '' Venusian'' for those of Venus. Fictional aliens refer to the inhabitants of Earth as '' Earthling'' (from the diminutive ''-ling'', ultimately from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''-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 Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' franchise's '' Klingons'' (with various names for their homeworld), and the Sangheili from the '' Halo'' franchise, (also known as Elites in the game by humans, as well as players) named after their homeworld of Sanghelios.

Notes

References

Sources

* *

External links

www.geography-site.co.uk
Alphabetical list of world demonyms.
www.everything2.com
Demonyms of the World.

www.peoplefrom.co.uk
Demonyms of the United Kingdom. {{Ethnicity Semantics Types of words