Talk:United States/Name

message: No discussion here, only votes.  See below for discussion
# Cburnett 22:31, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Support swap

message: No discussion here, only votes.  See below for discussion
#Proteus (Talk) 10:41, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Oppose swap

message: No discussion here, only votes.  See below for discussion
# Curps 10:06, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Other vote

message: There are specific usages for these terms.  The abbreviation "U.S." should *only* be used as an adjective, such as "U.S. dollar."  In noun form, the country must always be spelled out as "the United States."  Never refer to the country as "the U.S.;" that may be common in slang usage, but it is considered improper in writing.
:Abbreviations are a form of slang that can only be used as adjectives.  Gotcha.  Likewise, "Aren't I?" should be used instead of "Ain't I?", because the correct answer to the question would be "Yes, I are", and not the ungrammatical "Yes, I am" ("Ain't" being a variation on "Am't", the contraction of "am not").  See, because "ain't" is non-standard.
:Call me crazy here, but if we're going to be so linquistically pedantic, we should at least strive for sensical pedantry. -- King of the Pedants, Corvun 00:58, Mar 16, 2005 (UTC)
Corvun: The use of United States as a noun and U.S. as an adjective is standard in most style guides: NY Times, AP, Chicago Manual (used in book publishing), etc. Those of us who are professional copy editors and proofreaders like the distinction. Of course, we have a bigger bone to pick with Wikipedia: the substandard English found in many articles by contributors whose mother tongue is not English. Horrendous errors of syntax, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are ubiquitous.
: You say that you are a copy editor and proofreader: so, edit the places where you see problems. that is the whole point about wikipedia, you contribute what you can. you don't say that you are an author, you say that you are a copy editor and proofreader. Otherwise, it is better that someone contribute even if they have some rough edges, if their contribution is otherwise an improvement. brassrat
I do that, Brassrat—I often edit one English Wiki article each day to fix punctuation, syntax, and spelling. Some people take offense and revert my edits. (I also contribute articles in English, French, and German, and don't mind if someone alters my writing, especially in French and German.)
:ok, that's fine, but of course i misunderstood because that's not what you wrote... see any parallels? :) Peace. Brassrat 14:51, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  "United States" and "U.S." 

message: The official name of the US is United States of America, shouldn't that be the title of the article?
: Please look at the very first heading on this page. -- Coneslayer 22:44, 2005 July 26 (UTC)
it would make sense to change the name only if there was another united stares, of, say russia around somewhere.
Gabrielsimon
Both titles are good, and it may not be worth changing.
Tony 05:18, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Neither can I.  I vaguely recall that this issue may have been discussed before and the consensus was to keep the current name.  --Coolcaesar 14:05, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  The first entry on this page directs one to Archive 9.  (SEWilco 14:08, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  move to United States of America? 

message: I wonder whether contributors support the idea that it would be neater and easier to read if the nation were referred to simply as 'the US', i.e., without the dots; that is, after the opening, and in all instances for which there's no good reason to use one of the longer names. Currently, usage in this respect is inconsistent.
Tony 05:23, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree with Woodstone, we should use U.S.A., instead of "the US." --Gramaic | Talk 08:17, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  USA instead of U.S.A.? (SEWilco 15:22, 29 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Consistent reference to the US throughout? 

message: The official name of the US is the United States of America, not United States, though rendered to that very often. This article should be moved to United States of America to perserve its official name. --Alvinrune 21:49, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: This has been proposed many times previously and has never garnered a consensus to move and more often than not the discussion degenerated into barely disguised incivility. Please review the archived discussion pages before making a serious attempt to raise this contentious issue again (which after having been beaten to death umpteen times already is highly unlikely to come to ay sort of consensus now). BTW, the condensed version of why it remains at United States is the practice of using common names as article titles, enshrined as policy at Wikipedia:Naming conventions and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names)older≠wiser 01:27, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed Move 

message: I don't know whether this has been discussed before and if it has been, I'll shut up.
Wouldn't "United States of America" be the proper name for this article and "United States" only a redirect. After all this is the name of the country and there were and could be other "United States", even though there are none at present.
Str1977 13:07, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: That has been raised many times, please check the archives.  The consensus has always been to keep United States because that is the far more common usage in the vast majority of American publications (even government ones).  "United States of America" is very, very formal (not to mention a mouthful to say) and is only commonly used in documents with legal effect like passports and legislative bills (for example, a bill's preamble will always say something like "Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled").  --Coolcaesar 04:32, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: US or USA

message: Could I encourage everyone to go through and edit out all of the unnecessary uses of U.S. and America.  It is understood that the article is about the United States so the terms do not have to start and end every sentence.  Just my opinion but it does make it tough to read at times.--Looper5920 08:32, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Use of America and U.S. 

message: I'm sorry to state the obvious, but why is this article at "United States" and not at the official United States of America? Sure, the USA are the US, but as evidenced by United States (disambiguation), there are all sorts of other United States, so why not keep the article at the official name? dab (ᛏ) 23:33, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: United States

message: The country is referred to as: The United Sates of America, The United States, America, and U.S.A where did US of A and Columbia come from?
This a rather simple question to answer, U.S. of A is just someone's preference, standing for United States of America, and Columbia is just an old name for America, coming from the last name Christopher Columbus, since he is said to have be the first European to discover North America(Although this is disputed).--Dp462090 20:19, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why is Columbia a name for the United States?

message: *If this is an encyclopedia I feel empirical linguistic accuracy, rather than modern shorthand should be employed. The United States of America reflects and coincides with U.S.A. national and historical documents. This article is posted on the internet, a global medium and should heed all diplomatic and international formalities, be you a citizen of the U.S.A., Brasil, China or Nigeria rather than relying solely on a nation's contemporary reputation. The world is approaching globalization and the internet should reflect that.
138.243.201.4 13:17, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: And some people call it that. Wikipedia does not dictate what other people say. It presents that information. bob rulz 06:24, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I concur with Bob rulz.  Although I personally consider U.S. of A. to be a very informal usage (and rarely use it myself), it is regularly used in American English slang and therefore should be mentioned.  --Coolcaesar 01:04, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The United States of America / US of A 

message: The footnote currently reads: "In the U.S., America is more commonly used to describe the United States and less often to refer to the Americas, the lands of the Western Hemisphere (North and South America); the latter usage is more common in the rest of the world." Is this documented somewhere? Are we talking about the usage of "America" in English throughout the world or the use of that and similar words in other languages? - Nat Krause(Talk!) 00:04, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Use of the word America

message: Isn't United States of America the official name of the US?  I would think that United States should redirect to United States of America, not vice versa as is the current case.  What am I missing? - Jord 19:42, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Scroll up, look at Table of Contents section 12. Please. --Golbez 19:58, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. - Jord 20:37, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: terrible.  this is just bowing to american stupidity. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 151.201.43.192 (talk • contribs) .
* Shouldn't it be United States of America (USA)? When I see United States in the article name, I feel like something is missing, like it's short of a word: America.  Why is China the People's Republic of China (PRC), why don't we also use the People's Republic?  There is only one remaining country with the name People's Republic and that's China. 128.135.36.155 03:09, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why "United States" and not "United States of America"? 

message: #Support And no, you don't need to be logged on to vote. 70.51.9.190 19:16, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Support

message: #Oppose as per WP:NC: "Use the most common name of a person or thing that does not conflict with the names of other people or things." -- Mwanner | Talk 20:10, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Oppose

message: #Neutral changing my vote from Support. I would still personally prefer ... of America, but as pointed out by User:Ceyockey below, United States is the common form in ecyclopedias (also  and ). I would still like to see more examples of common usage outside the U.S. ~ trialsanderrors 18:53, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Neutral