Learn English – What do you call in the USA the people of English ancestry

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What do you call the ethnic group of people who are of English ancestry? Do you call them Anglo-Saxons?

Best Answer

Amusingly, at least to those non-Americans who have the pleasure of talking about this subject with Americans, the customary term in conversation is: "English".

Similarly, those of German ancestry are called "German", Korean ancestry "Korean", and Zimbabwean ancestry "Zimbabwean". As a culture of immigrants, we more or less wear our ancestry proudly and directly. It doesn't matter how many generations back it goes. Note that this is specifically for use in the US: if you are in Ireland, for example, it would be inappropriate (and potentially rude) to call yourself Irish. This is a fairly common faux pas of Americans abroad.

If you are referring to a context in which one would be expected to understand that these individuals are not, in fact, English immigrants but simply Americans of English descent or heritage, you are left with explicit constructions to that effect:

Americans of English descent/heritage are concentrated largely in the East, while those of East Asian descent/heritage are in the West

Anglo-Saxon tends to stand in for all white Americans in popular usage. At this point I would recommend being quite explicit that you mean the truly Anglo-Saxon ethnic group if you want to use that term, but it has historical meaning only and is in no sense cultural. I assume that this usage is a result of the popularity of the term "WASPs" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), but I don't have any hard data on that.