England's Odd Demonyms 

What are people from your city known as?

I’ve never heard a single soul refer to Birmingham as “beloved on the world stage”

Surely the best derogatory name that's been embraced by the locals are the "Monkey-Hangers" of Hartlepool?

Wierdest demonym was what we locals called people in our tiny town in tunisia, Dehiba, which we'd call ourselves "Min Anakin" (meaning "of anakin") as an adjective. Reason being, Dehiba is in the Tataouine Governorate of tunisia, so we made a pun in the 1990s in reference to the planet the star wars character Anakin was born on

I'm a Mackem, born in Sunderland, which is where my dad is from, but I'm also half Sand Dancer - the denonym for the nearby South Shields.

I’m a Geordie. A lot of years ago I worked with the British Army in the extreme south of England. Those rascally squaddies called all northeners “ganyams”. When I asked why, I was told that it all depends on homesickness and weekend leave. “It’s Friday and I’m gannin hyem”. (It’s Friday and I’m going home)

I like how Nottingham apparently comes from a local king Snot and everybody collectively decided to forget that and people from Nottingham are not called Snots

Wiltshiremen are referred to as 'Moonrakers' from a smuggler story that shows them in good (moon)light

"You all know what a demonyn is, right?" Uh, yeah. It's what you call an evil mystical entity, innit?

Sheffielders are called Deedars by other Tykes (Yorkshire people) because instead of saying "thee and thou" we said "dee and daa".

Wools are from wirral, the peninsula dividing Liverpool from Wales, surrounded by the mersey and dee.

Worth noting that the egg part of the possible "cockney" origin story is because the Middle English word was ey. Which is funny because the Old English word was ǣg, we lost the G and then found it again later

I'm near a Manchester in the US, I was a bit surprised to see that the demonym is Mancunian. It comes from an older Latin word, Mancunium, of uncertain etymology, from the city's Roman days (in 79 AD).

You have accidentally overlooked that people in Birmingham and the surrounding area call Birmingham "Brum". It hasn't fallen out of use. Brummie is a person from Brum... It isn't much of a leap given the abbreviated form of the old name for the town / city hasn't fallen out of use.

0:30 "why have i made that sound way more complicated than it needed to be" linguistics in a nutshell

Brazil is full of weird denonyms. Examples: - Rio de Janeiro: Carioca - Salvador: Soteropolitano - Rio Grande do Sul: Gaúcho - Espírito Santo: Capixaba - Rio Grande do Norte: Potiguar

Love how your photo of Newcastle shows more of Gateshead than it does Newcastle.

Yes. I'm a 65 year old Australian. Brumby is a word my father used. He was born in a remote rural area of Victoria in 1903.

I'm from Groningen in the Netherlands and we are called Mollebonen.

Ones from around the north east include Sanddancer for South Shields and Smoggie for Teesside

This is a perfect video to, once and for all, state that no my username has no relation to Mackem. It's just a coincidence

There's also some pretty odd ones from Mexico. People from Monterrey are called "regiomontanos", people from Mexico City are called "chilangos" or "defeños" and my absolute favorite is the name the name they give to people from Aguascalientes: "hidrocálidos".

i never EVER see plymouth in a video like this, let alone the term janner. very cool but also a bit of a jumpscare lol

I'm originally from Birmingham and when we'd be going to the city centre, we'd still say we're off to Brummagem. Not sure if that's common or just me and my mental family 😆 (Also, it's said with a soft g by the way). Oh, and when I was working on building sites, you'd often be asked to pass the 'Brummie screwdriver", meaning the hammer!

I never heard of the stew "lobscouse", but I know the northern german version "Labskaus". I didn't know it existed in Scandinavia as well.

There is no way people genuinely didnt know that cockrels dont lay eggs

The demonym for someone from Birmingham, Alabama could be " 'Bama Brummie", perhaps. 😂

Also living in Plymouth, I think the Janner name is more about the accent. A regional Devonian accent (farmer accent closer to a Somerset or Bristolian accent) and Plymouth accent (Jannarrrr) do sound different. Different again to a Cornish accent as well. One thing that unites them all is overpronouncing Rs.

Yaaaay, proud Janner here (actual Plymouth Janner too.) My dad was in the Navy, and I remember him telling me 'Janner' was naval-related, but it's good to hear the other origin story too.

George means earth worker. I guess it's possible for Geordie to be used for coal miners.

Jeff Lynne is another great Brummie celebrated all over the world. LA, New York, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, SHARD END.

Thanks for a top class video. A couple of points. The “g” in Brummagem is pronounced soft like the”j” in jar. I have read that Brummagem is not thought to be a corruption of Birmingham but a perfectly regular parallel development from the Old English - compare the equally valid pronunciations of Shrewsbury as Shroosbury and Shrowsbury. While we are on the subject of language I should mention that though my original Brummie speech is probably a little diluted I expect that my pronunciation of the diphthongs ou and ie appears eccentric. Most of us have some sort of accent other than pure RP and I was interested in yours. I noticed that you have the London traits of an occasional glottal stop and - always - the pronunciation of th as an f eg Plymouf instead of Plymouth. Additionally you seem to pronounce final ls as ws - eg “people” as “peopuw” - and regularly placed a heavy stress on the last consonant of a sentence, no doubt for clarity. I wonder what sort of a (slight) accent that is. Anyway, interesting .

I loved that you used a picture of richard hammond with oliver!

Another you missed is Loiner for those from Leeds.

I have some more to add to the North East! If you follow the coast from the Geordies and Mackems down, you'll hit Hartlepool where they're called Monkey Hangers. This is because in early 17th century they hung a monkey believing it to be a Napoleonic spy. Follow that further down and you'll hit the best place in the world- Middlesbrough. People from Middlesbrough are called Smoggies because the town used to be majorly industrialised and it created a lot of smog. If you keep going down the coast to the fishing villages south of Redcar, you'll find people being referred to as "Cod Heads" because a significant part of the historic fishing load was Cod.

As any Wulfrunian or Salopian will tell you, Brummagem is pronounced "Brummijum". Usage includes knocking screws into wood.

I'm from New Zealand, often known as Kiwis, from Auckland, our largest city, we are called "Jaffas", or Dorklanders by those who live outside of Auckland.

Those names that started as derogatory might be what we call a "geuzennaam" in Dutch: a name that starts derogatory but is picked up and worn by its referrents with pride. Etymology: When the Spanish ruled over The Netherlands, the Dutch wrote a letter to Brussels to plea their independence, upon which the recipient referred to them as "gueux" ("beggers"), which got picked up and bastardized to "geus" in Dutch, with a new meaning: "fighter for the Dutch revolt" Another, more recent "geuzennaam" is "wap(pie)". This refers to a person who falls for conspiracy theories (especially since CoViD) and is an insult, but some "wappies" have started to wear the term with pride: "If thinking this makes me a 'wappie', then fine, I'm a 'wappie'!"

I didn't know about some of them, thank you! We have the same thing here in Italy, where someone from Milan could be called a Meneghino, Naples = Partenopeo, Verona = Scaligero and so on 🙂

Im from near a small town in East Anglia called Stowmarket. Some people from there where refured to as "Stow Martians" though weather that stuck, I dont know.

Was excited to hear the history of Mancunians as one myself, but another interesting one I've heard is that the people from Lincoln are referred to as Yellowbellies; if you do a follow-up please look into these two

In Portugal we have some cases like that, for example: People from Chaves are called Flaviense, due to the Roman name of the city Aquae Flavia; People from Santarém are escalabitano, from the Roman name Scalabis; Also in the Roman name thing we have the city of Guarda, then called Egitania, so, the people are egitanienses. And the last one I can remember is the city of Castelo Branco ( White Castle in english) so the people are called Albi ( White) Castrenses ( Castle)

To clarify about Sunderland; the term comes from "Takkers and Makkers", which was current at least in the 1970s. Takers and makers alluded to the pits (of which there were several) the shipyards and the glassworks (Famously Pyrex). Also there was the "We makkem, yea takkem due to the limestone ridge across the river mouth that made it rather difficult to get the buggers back.

I believe Cornishman Sir Humphry Davy invented the miners safety lamp!

I'm a Grecian, and we generally use janner as a derogatory term

Pac gets a mention. nice! Also, what about South Shields, they have Sandancer as their demonym

the miners' lamp was invented by Humphrey Davy for the Cornish tin mines.

Mush/musher for someone from Portsmouth. They are sometimes also called "skates" too...

Coming from Birmingham, AL, I have literally never heard of the name Brummie even though I even know someone from Birmingham, England

Ahem, you neglected to name-check history's finest Brummie: Nigel Mansell's moustache...

Does every town not also have a demonym? My family is from Dover (UK) and I’d always know the demonym to be Dovorian. Then in Kent you’ve also got the Man of Kent vs Kentish Man distinction (“Maid” in place of “Man” if you are woman), depending on which side of the Medway you are born. Not sure the latter is really a demonym, but applies to all people born in a certain geographic area and allegedly has either Anglo Saxon or Norman origins

in the state of NSW in australia, someone is called a "New South Welshman"

5:36 plz tell me the neighbouring yammies got featured bc that name is wildddd

I live in a small town a few miles from Plymouth and the word janner is exclusively used for people from Plymouth

The town of nantwich has the demonym "dabber" which i think comes from the towns history of leather or salt trade but i am not sure

According to Wikipedia the denonym for Norwich is norvician. But there's no source cited and I've never heard anyone say that ever. Googling it also doesn't help much - it's a bit of a mystery

Thx for an interesting video. It introduced Janners and Mackems to me, and explained Geordie. My grandfather's family hailed from Caernarfon, and its natives are called Cofis. Why? My cousin lives in Indiana, and regards himself as Hoosier. From where does that nickname derive?

This is all well and good but whats the denonym for Edinburgh, ive been using lothians for years

I’m from Gloucester Massachusetts, and we have been referred to as Gloucesterites. Is this the same with the original Gloucester?

The biggest town in my area is called Ashford, but lots of people refer to it as Trashford, not quite the same but still funny imo 😂

I'm from Wolverhampton and therefore Wulfrunian, due to our founder and Matron, Lady Wulfrun but other West Midlanders, especially Brummies call us Yamyams because apparently "Yam always gooing up the rowad or summat!" (also apparently the way we speak!")

People from Pittsburgh in the USA are known as Yinzers. It's derived from the local word for You, singular or plural. "Are yinz goin' Dahntahn?" Meaning Are you going downtown?

In the Netherlands some towns have different names during our carnival, like Heemskerk where I've been born is called "Ezelenheem", so I'm an "Ezel" and yup, that's Donkey 😂 Amsterdam is Mokum so Mokumers, butnot for Carnival. A whole list is here, and there are more besides these, outside of the Carnival season: nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_alternatieve_Nederlandse_plaatsnamen_tijdens_carnaval

I've only ever heard Brumigem pronounced with the 'g' sounding like a 'j': so it sounds like, Brummyjum. I've heard of Janners, but not 'Cousin Jan'. I know it as 'Cousin Jack', but that may be due to a folk song. I'm from the West Country so have been called a Wurzel, and a carrot-cruncher.

People from Kent are just known as Kentish atm but I think we could call ourselves "Catties" - cattie from cathedral, as in Canterbury Cathedral

I'm a smoggie, Teesside's heavy industry gave the area a thick smog which football away fans used to insult us in the 90s. Me dad's a pit yacker and me mum comes from the clarish

What is the background music?

Having been born in the UK over half a century ago i only knew about half of these and after reading the comments there's a vast number i never knew mostly from the North of England. Which is odd as a kid i watched lots of of UK tv shows based in the North of England. But seriously i've never met people who used these Demonyms or seen them in print or heard them on tv/radio/movies.

My grandfather had the absolute thickest Cockney accent, I don’t think I honestly ever understood a single word he ever said. Oh and I doubt any Aussie he ever came across understood him either 😂 Also, never heard of the term Brummie 😂

Something similar happens within my region, where people from certain towns and cities receive weird demonyms, often derogatory in origin.

I'm from London and we don't consider Adele or David Beckham cockneys.. Adele isn't even from East London she's from Tottenham, that's North-East London.

re: Cockney "ey" used to be a legitimate word for egg in English as well. cf. with Dutch "ei" Actually, this almost perfectly parallels the John/Jan thing brought up right after regarding Plymouth

I know the name "Brummie" (well "Brummi") for something completely different and a complete other etymology. A "Brummi" in Germany is a name you could give to a big truck. And the etymology is very simple, as the sound of a cars engine is called "brummen". So, a "Brummi" is just a car with a loud engine.

I'm from Johannesburg, so the city denonym is Johannesburger or Joburger (Joburg being a nickname). Interestingly, the word "burger" in it's original Dutch and German literally translates as "citizen".

I'm sure people from outside of Wales call Welsh people Taffy or Taff. Probably because Cardiff, the capital sits on the river Taff. In Wales we have a few, southern Walians call north Walians Gog, which is shortened from the Welsh word Gogledd which means north. North Walians call South Walians Hwntw, which is supposed to come from a word that means beyond in Welsh.. People from Llanelli are called Turks. And people from Swansea are called Jack's.

I live a bout 40 miles North of Birmingham Alabama all my life and I have never heard of anyone from there as any name . We just say “That guy is from Birmingham “ I don’t know if you know. But the suburbs also share names with British counterpart.

I'm Geordie but I'll mention my local brethren from Middlesborough called "Smoggies" ;)

I think someone from Oxford should be known as "Cappies" (for the mortarboards worn during university celebrations).

Here in new england people like my self from Massachusetts are called mass holes. Which would include our Plymouth

I'm from a certain part of Scotland and we are sometimes referred to in the same way as you implied Welsh people are lol mind you we are also sometimes called "teuchters" meaning people from the country (although since I've lived in the city for a long time now that doesn't apply so much as the 'sheep' one haha". The UK can be weird 😂

My Mum, who was a cockney said it came from the Huguenots…now this gets complicated…a lot of the Londoners had crooked noses - not sure if it was a south east Anglo Saxon thing or what but ‘cock ney’ came from cock nez ( cock for crocked French for nose). Like how cliche cockneys carry a songbird in a cage (something else the French Huguenots brought with them along with all the mulberry trees scattered across London from when they were silk farmers).

You need to do a little more research on some of these. Cockney is either a derivation of Cockaigne - a mythical kingdom of liberty and licentiousness - or from "cock an eye" which was (is?) a very widespread habit there for recognising other insiders and "cocky" is a related word - it doesnt mean "useless". "Janner" is a derivation of "Jane" which is a common term for matelots - Plymouth being a major port. More important though, there are dozens you've missed out, for example Tykes (for South Yorkshire people), Boggers (Nottingham), Yonners (Lancashire), Yammies (Black Country), Monkeyhangers (Hartlepool/Teeside), Moonrakers (Dorset/Wiltshire), Taffs (west Wales), Gogs (north Wales), Muffins (south Devon)..... and I’d like to hear you explain the origin of Botherers (for Lancashire people).

Reminds me of the debate as to whether people from the state of Michigan are called Michiganians or Michiganers

Can someone tell me, what the demonym for people from Southampton is. Would it be; Southamptonian, Southamptonite, or Southamptoner?

Why no link to the other Cockney vid other than during this vid? Mobile app users have to rewind (seek) to access that, the there is a menu that expands to show all of the links that are shown in a given video's that can be expanded during any links that shows up during playback, but since this is the only link that shows up in this video during the video... if I want to watch this one in its entirety *before* I go watch that other video, I have to seek that exact part of the video where it shows up, for only a few seconds. Maybe put it in the description or pin it in a comment. [EDIT:] As it turns out, there's no like to that video whatsoever. [END EDIT] (Everything below was part of the original comment as it were.) Also, I'm really hoping I get to learn how _ney equals egg_ in the other Cockney vid... cuz that parts baffling me. I say as much cuz you don't always explain name/word origins to that resolution... I'm guessing you figure your audience already knows certain thing that I just don't... so it's common for me to to have to Google the etymology of words suffixes and prefixes after watching your videos... which I feel kind of defeats the purpose of your videos. Just play critique I've been moving to articulate for a while now. This critique is something I mean as constructive criticism, not as a personal jab at you. Take it or leave it for what it's worth to you. I'll not harp on it any further.

In Ireland there's Jackeens vs Culchies. I don't know if anyone cares, but I can explain these if asked. As for me, I am a Yank/Yankee.

Leeds have Loiner or Leodensian, which are pretty cool. Epecially Leodenisian, feels quite Roman

In Dorset, anyone who is *not* from Dorset is called a Grockle, especially if they're here on holiday.

Hullensian from Hull but we get called Cod heads due to the massive fishing industry we had. A hullensian would never call themselves cod head and instead use it for people from Grimbsy just down the river from Hull

My favourite is “Glaswegian”

As a janner, I’m proud of our nickname

Way back, some Leicester types were called woolybacks.

Your go to list of Scousers doesn’t include the Beatles 😅

Apart from Janner and Mackem, I'd heard of all those before now.

I live in Somerville, Massachusetts; one of our demonyms is "Villens", more often used by people whose families have lived here for a long time. I'm more fond of "Somervudlians", obviously a cheeky nod to "Liverpudlians". Meanwhile, since "Massachusetts" doesn't exactly lend itself to conventional suffixes, we semi-officially get stuck with the rather clunky "Bay Staters", but a far more commonly used term is "Massholes", mostly by people from other states. :-) Oh, and people from Cambridge, immediately south of us, do cheerfully call themselves "Cantabridgians".

So do people from Newcastle just not have last names or

I’m manc but someone up the road in Oldham is called a yonner

I don’t know why but I find it hilarious that Bede and jordon Pickford where mentioned in the same sentence

Janner and proud and I can definitely say it's the city folk called this .... Everyone else is a Devonian

Missed opportunity not to mention Yam Yam as the demonym for someone from the Black Country