There have been a number of attempts to coin an alternative to American as an adjective (a demonym) for United States nationals. If such terminology had evolved more systematically, American should be reserved for the Americas; instead, common usage requires terms such as North American and South American to be used when referring to these larger groups.

Alternatives which have been proposed include

Appalacian, Colonican, Columbard, Columbian, Frede, Fredonian, Pindosian (or just Pindos), Uesican, Uessian, Unisan, Unisian, United States (as an adjective), United States American, United Statesian, USAian, US American, Usan, USAn, Usanian, Usian (pronounced "YOU-zhuhn"), U-S-ian, Usonian, and Washingtonian.

References to these words have been around since the early days of the United States, but all of the variants are virtually unused and American remains by far the most common usage.

In other languages, such as Spanish, American is more ambiguous. In the Iberoamerican countries, the use of "American" to refer only to a US citizen could be considered politically incorrect and culturally aggressive.

Several of these terms have direct parallels in languages other than English. Many languages have already created their own distinct word for a citizen of the United States:

• United Statesian directly parallels the Spanish term estadounidense.
• In French, the term Étatsunien has also been coined, but enjoys little more currency than United Statesian in English.
• Usonian, a term used by Samuel Butler and other British writers in the 19th century and later used by Frank Lloyd Wright to describe his vision for American architecture and cities.
• Usanian is derived from the Ido word Usana.
• Pindos (or Pindosian) was born during UN operation in Kosovo. Initiators of this "invention" was, as usual, russian troops, which was dislocated at Kosovo airport in Prishtina. The origin of this alias is unknown. According to rumors, "Pindosos" in Spanish means "dorks". At first, in Kosovo, american soldiers tried not to pay attention to sticked nickname – they didn’t understand its meaning. However, when this nickname became known not only among russian troops, americans asked not to use this nickname relatively to them. But is was too late... This nickname sticked not only to armymen, but to all americans at all.

In other parts of the world, there are also pejorative synonyms of the standard word for American. In Latin America, there is gringo (although that can also apply to the English), and, in several languages, local adaptations of Yankee.

Cockney rhyming slang for Yank has produced the name septic tank or septic; this is occasionally used in the UK and Australia. In Australia this is often modified to seppo.

• Alternative words for British
• Culture of the United States

• Electric Editors, "EDline". Editorial mailing list. Vol. 4, no. 9; March 7, 1999.