Post edited 10:45AM – Apr-29-10 by ratlady

Ron Draney said:

The full official name of Mexico translates as "United Mexican States" (Estados Unidos Mexicanos), so the only part we can use to distinguish the USA is the "America" part. Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of the term "Usonian", if that's of any help to you, and it seems HL Mencken collected a whole rack of suggestions (Columbard, Fredonian, Unitedstateser), none of which managed to catch on.
As to the absence of any other country with the word "America(n)" in its name, I'm somehow reminded of a scene early in the movie "To Sir With Love" where Thackeray (played by Sidney Poitier) meets the other teachers for the first time. As soon as he starts to speak, one of them blurts out "Oh, an American!" Thackeray corrects them by saying he's actually "British, from British Guiana", which because of its location in the New World would still make him an "American" to many people despite it being (at the time) part of the British empire.

I lived in Venezuela for about a year, and they were very patriotic and made sure to inform me that they were Americans too. They also pointed out that they were also United Statesians (estadounidenses), because they are the United States of Venezuela. But mostly they just called us Americanos — I guess it was easier for them as well as for us.

In regard to the "Mahoff", I wonder if its related to Maha, which is a prefix in hindi which means big. Maha-raja for instance would be big-king = emperor. Mahatma (Gandhi) would be great-spirit.