What Would You Name People From These Western New York Towns?

What Would You Name People From These Western New York Towns?

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Someone from Buffalo is called a Buffalonian.  But what would you all someone from Cheektowaga?

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It's can be a little tricky figuring out what to calls someone who is from a particular town or city.

Are they an -ite?  An -an?

Words like Buffalonian, Bostonian, or even New Yorker are called demonyms.  Don't feel bad.  I looked it up too.

dem·o·nym [ dem-uh-nim ]
noun
the name used for the people who live in a particular country, state, or other locality:Two demonyms for the residents of Michigan are Michigander and Michiganian.

The problem with them is that there are multiple demonyms for certain locations. So how do you determine what to call someone?  According to Stack Exchange, there are some common rules:

  • -(a)n (mostly for countries and continents) as in Mexican and African
  • -ian as in Bostonian and Oregonian
  • -ite (mostly for cities) as in Vancouverite
  • -er as in Londoner and New Englander
  • -ese as in Chinese and Japanese

Unfortunately, there aren't many hard rules for this though.  The best rule of thumb is to just go with what the people that are native to that area like to call themselves.

So what would some of these towns call their people?  We decided to take a stab at it.  If you're from one of these towns, let us know if we got them right!  And if not, what should they be?

 

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Filed Under: buffalo, Buffalo Buzz
Categories: Arts & Culture, Brett Alan, WNY News

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