Talk:British Americans

message: I don't see a category for American-Britons, i.e., US expats who have settled in the UK and/or attained British citizenship.
T. S. Eliot, Henry James, Sam Wanamaker, Larry Sanders, Oona King, Jenny Jerome (mother of Winston Churchill) et al are in this category. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.225.175.82 (talk) 18:06, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That really isn't the point of this article. You would need to look under British ethnic groups, not American ones. Rmhermen 20:45, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

text: Granted, but I wasn't criticizing this article for not describing such people, but saying that Wikipedia in general should have an article or entry, and that this article shoould have a "see also" thingie directing people to such an article or list. After all, I came across this article only after first searching for an article or list of Americans who have settled in Britain, not the other way around. I have since located a wikipedia list of "American expatriates in the UK" but that is not necessarily the same as "American Britons" who can be British nationals of American origin (either immigrants to the UK from the US or the children of one or such immigrants or expats). I think there is a need for such an article or list, and one that distinguishes "American Britons" from American expats in the UK", the latter of which may just be Americans who happen to live in the UK, whether on a temporary or permanent basis, and are not necessarily British citizens. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.225.175.82 (talk) 01:48, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I looked through :Category:Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom and can't find any related article. Perhaps just too small a group to warrant notice. Rmhermen 17:32, 7 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, not so small. This BBC analysis of the 2001 census data shows 155,030 UK residents were born in the US, 0.27% of the whole population. On the other hand, this page shows 678,000 UK-born people living in the US. -- Arwel (talk) 13:46, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not so small at all. I can't quote any references for this, but my understanding is that, until the recent expansion of the European Union which has resulted in mass migration of Eastern Europeans to Great Britain and excluding migration to GB from the Indian subcontinent, for many years annual arrivals from the USA have contributed the greatest number of migrants.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.2.200.121 (talk) 10:12, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: American-Britons?

message: The dude was an Englishman, not an American.  His work Common Sense was said to be authored by "an Englishman," and he canstantly speaks as an Englishman addressing Americans; not s an American.  He was here in revolutionary times, sure, and then he was in France in the early days of their revolution.  He's not an American, though he played an important role in American history.  Why is he shown as a British American?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.22.172.224 (talk) 03:48, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: He took up Pennsylvanian and then American citizenship. When he was arrested in France he used his American citizenship as his defence. So he was English, and became American. He was English-American. This seems quite clear-cut.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Harsimaja (talk • contribs) 08:47, 14 December 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Thomas Paine?

message: I think somehow we should include the us census graphs in the article, but they are misleading given that the US south is the area with the greatest concentration and homogeneity of british ancestry. In the census these people largely identify as "American ethnicity" either because they have no connection to the British culture per se or are unaware of thier heritage, however they are typically of predominant British decent. I don't know of anyway to include this scientifically but does anyone have any ideas?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.220.146.147 (talk) 22:41, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: US South

message: I don't understand that why the British Ancestry dropped dramatically from 1980 to 2000?Is it because they died or they chose not to admit that they were British Ancestry  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.105.221.120 (talk) 20:20, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The census question is a question of self-identity, not of historical fact. So while some did die, mostly many no longer identify themselves as British. This period also coincided with a large increase in the number of people identifying as "American". Rmhermen (talk) 17:26, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: question

message: I think it is improper to call people of ancestry from Northern Ireland British-Americans. All of Ireland used to be part of the United Kingdom, so if those people are British-Americans then so are Irish-Americans descended from people who came here during the Potato Famine. It makes things very confusing. Also Northern Ireland, although it is part of the United Kingdom, is not part of the island of Great Britain, and the people there don't really consider themselves British, the unionists only want to stay because they are afraid of being dominated by the Catholic state in the south, and they like the economic benefits of their connection with Great Britain. I would not call people of northern Irish descent British Americans, it is improper and confusing. --76.214.112.50 (talk) 07:33, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I disagree, though agree with part of your point. People of Northern Irish origins definitely should be classed as British Americans - they are British, period - no argument. However, I *also* contrarily believe that this term should cover any American who has origins in the British Isles as a whole. This clearly includes the whole of Ireland (not only Northern Ireland), as the entire island of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the period when most migration to North America from Ireland occurred (i.e. during the potato famine). Given that many Americans may be able to trace their ancestry to somewhere in the British Isles, but many will not be able to pinpoint exactly where, the British American" term referring to the entire British Isles is the most convenient 84.227.57.175 (talk) 23:49, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  I kinda object to someone trying to rationalise "why" unionists like myself don't want a united Ireland, which has nought to do with the religious makeup of the Republic.  We consider ourselves British, either through choice or ethnicity, that should be enough for Johnny Foreigners!! After all, we don't question *YOUR* ethnic origins or political allegiances.  Plus it's kinda irrelevant  regards the classification of British-Americans.  I think incorporating Ulster-Scots heritage into both British-American and Irish-American groups is a fair compromise.  Cyberbeagle. 85.211.131.221 (talk) 22:13, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  Could you then argue that whether someone is British American or Irish American depends on the political status(es) of Northern Ireland at the time of their leaving the country (or being granted citizenship)? Constitutionally and legally, people from Northern Ireland are British and have been since the Union with Ireland in 1800. How about changing the article to reflect that unionists in Northern Ireland consider themselves British too? TomB123 (talk) 18:57, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Northern Ireland

message: This is a english imperialism against Scotland and Walles!!! Nacionality is english, welsh, scot, etc...(are very differents etnic origins; englishs are a anglo-saxon/germanic people and welshs/scots are a celtic/celtiberian people and not a germanic people!!!)!!
: I dont think so. Use of the term British is not pro English and anti Scottish / Welsh. It is fact that "Britishness" was pushed on the English people when a Scottish King became King of England in the 1600s. 100 years later under a monarch of Scottish blood England and Scotland joined to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Pathetic claims that England is the bad guy and has done everything is simply silly and not based on historic fact. As for British not being a nationality i think you will find it is, and we even have passports to prove our nationality. 
: Also just for the record if you didnt read the article, the choice of "BRITISH" appeared on their recent census as well as English, Scottish etc. This is not an exception, take a look at European American, surely u can accept there is even more difference between the different European people than the British people.
: Please take your silly arguments about British people to our articles and not drag people from other countries into internal disputes. BritishWatcher (talk) 08:43, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  I don't think it's worth even entertaining such nonsense or engaging with it: the person concerned has not even attempted to put their nonsensical beliefs in the context of Wikipedia guidelines, style, references or anything of the sort. It's probably just trolling. --Breadandcheese (talk) 13:01, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: British not is a nationality

message: Is Brad Pitt really important enough to be featured in a prominent location in this article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.106.237.249 (talk) 22:15, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I think so, given he's of entirely English ancestry (and perhaps less importantly has a very English surname).  I don't see why he shouldn't be. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.94.47.16 (talk) 15:22, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Brad Pitt? 

message: I fixed it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.33.72.14 (talk) 01:54, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  No one noticed settlement being spelled wrong? 

message: I think we need to switch some of these up. Currently we have:
*Benjamin Franklin 
* Douglas MacArthur
* James Monroe 
* Thomas Paine
* Butch Cassidy
* James Madison
*Christopher Hitchens 
* Rick Rescorla
So by race, all white
*by gender, all males
*by time, 4 of 8 "Founders"-era, 2 recent, 1 19th century, 1 early-20th
*by ancestry, 3 immigrants, two children of immigrants, one grandchild, 2 of older heritage
*by UK country, 3 Scot, 5 English, 1 Cornish, 0 Irish, 0 Welsh
So obviously we need to replace Paine with an Irish-Welsh black woman whose grandparents immigrated to America in 1800s. Or we could replace a couple pictures at once. I would remove Paine and Madison and perhaps switch Monroe with George Washington. Bette Davis has Welsh ancestry, Ava Gardner has Scots-Irish and Irish, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the granddaughter of Welsh and English immigrants, Drew Barrymore English descent, Halle Berry had an white English grandmother. 20:13, 5 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: infobox images

message: Can we please ensure that the statements made in the article text actually matches the references? Case in point, the references refer to people of English descent tending to refer to themselves as 'American' - not Cornish, Welsh, Irish or Scots (all of which are much more 'exciting' than English).
In addition, there is no benefit in highlighting certain nations within Britain as being included (i.e. Cornish) - this is taken as read and doesn't need repetition.86.142.63.245 (talk) 00:34, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Cornish is the only one not mentioned in the U.S. census breakdown on the page and so is clearly a valuable addition. Which of the 4 offline references did you read - or did you just read the half a page freely available on google books of the one source and in bad faith assume that all the reference only mention English? Rmhermen (talk) 00:47, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The entire phrase mentioning all groups was added in one edit with all four references on February 18, 2010. I see no reason to doubt that this is exactly as intended. Rmhermen (talk) 00:57, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  I took the time to read the references, which is clearly more than you did, and the explicit reference was to the phenomena of English Americans identifying with other ethnic groups - even without any evidence that they came from the alternate ancestry.  The text was in partial error and should have been corrected.81.156.91.18 (talk) 01:18, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  British - not English, Cornish, Welsh, Irish or Scots 

message: Hi, All.
I was just editing the article's second paragraph, which now reads as follows:
I was going to deal with the paragraph's final sentence, including making sure that the proper term ("percent" or "percentage point") was not confused with its improper cousin.  So, seeking the 1980 numbers, I went to "1980 United States Census" and followed its link to this PDF.  So far, I fail to see that the 1980 Census discussed 'British Americans'.  I find, in Table 42, on page 34, a breakdown of the American population by ancestry, in which those reporting single ancestry fall into the categories "English" (part of "British", to my mind), "German", "Irish" (another part of "British" to my mind, but apparently not in our article's intro), "Italian", "Polish", and "Spanish", and the three multiple-ancestry groups are "English and other", "German and other", and "Irish and other".
Is there a report of 1980 Census data that says what kinds of ancestry did and didn't make up what our Wikipedia article calls "British"—or has someone writing in our article merely decided that "British" doesn't mean "Irish" (and really means just "English"?)?  Not 'accusing' anyone; just trying to figure it out, so we can make this article as good as it can be.
President Lethe (talk) 01:47, 19 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  1980 definition of British in second paragraph 

message: Would someone who is a citizen of both countries but of an ethnicity other than White British be considered a British American?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.19.199.159 (talk) 06:56, 3 October 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes. This article seems to only focus on ethnicity though. Hza a 9 (talk) 21:30, 19 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  British American 

message: Hi, it struck me there's no German language version of this or English Americans. I intend to do something about it, anyone willing to help? Just ping me. Cheers, Horst-schlaemma (talk) 09:36, 9 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  German article 

message: I believe that this page would be more historically based in fact, if it also listed the number of British-Irish Americans according to their ancestors' nationality from 1801-1922. I say this because my ancestors were protestant Anglo-Irish who moved from Dublin to Pennsylvania in the mid-1800's. I prefer to identify as British-American because Ireland was part of the U.K. during this time. I don't understand why German-Americans (German, Austrian, Swiss, Volga) are bunched together as a group, whilst the British and Irish are fragmented and devolved into five ethnicities: (English,Welsh,Scottish,Scotch-Irish,Irish)--being about as different genetically to each other as a Bavarian probably is to a Saxon.
Just my two cents, but I would prefer it if "Anglo-Celtic Americans" was the title to this page instead of "British Americans", as "British" is not an ethnicity strictly speaking. The only way the term "British Americans" would rightly suit this page, is if it included the population of immigrants who held British citizenship and were from the area that today constitutes the Republic of Ireland. This would hold up both in terms of national and geographic identity.
Where I live in the Appalachia, a decent portion of my friends listed "Irish" on the census, despite actually being Scotch-Irish. It is also for this reason I believe that some aspects of this page should be reconsidered.--TheAceOfSpades115 (talk) 23:22, 23 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Has anyone considered that Britain and Ireland were once one and the same?

message: I was wondering, when exactly did British Americans cease to be a majority in the US? – Illegitimate Barrister (talk • contribs), 12:27, 25 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  When? 

message: Whoever estimated this population cites Ancestry dot com which is not a reliable source in the first place, and doesn't say anything about 90+ million "British Americans".  Jonathan f1 (talk) 00:49, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  90 million?? 

message: british American return 2023 223.39.180.125 (talk) 23:15, 15 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  british American return 2023 

message: "British Americans usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Orkney, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man)."
The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom. It also seems a bit redundant listing Cornwall and Orkney, since they are in England and Scotland, respectively, which have already been listed. Whywhowhere (talk) 12:49, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  'United Kingdom' 

message: I don't know how relevant this is but some of you may find it interesting.. While the top surnames in the US have (mostly) British Isles origins, a significant fraction of the people who report these names aren't even white. About 30% of people with the surname Smith, for example, aren't white; 41% with the name Johnson aren't white; ~55% of Williams' aren't white; 42% of Browns and 45% of Jones. If you move down the list to names like Jackson: 61% of American Jacksons aren't white and nearly 90% of Americans with the last name Washington are African-American. With a name like Harris -you are equally likely to encounter a non-white Harris as a white one (it's about 50-50 split).
It seems that, for millions of Americans, these names are often the byproducts of colonization and slavery rather than a celebrated heritage. This is reflected in the fact that of the top 10 names with the largest share of the "non-Hispanic white alone" group, all but one appear to be Germanic in origin (p. 5) Jonathan f1 (talk) 04:57, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Surnames