British Americans

Total population
61.7 million (2020 census)[1] 18.4% of the total US population  • English: 46.6 million  • Scottish: 8.4 million  • Scotch-Irish: 2.5 million  • Cornish: 2 million  • Welsh: 2 million  • Manx: 7 thousand  • Other: 230,000 Alone 39.1 million (2020 census)[2][3] 11.8% of the total US population
Regions with significant populations
Throughout the entire United States Less common in the Midwest Predominantly in the South, New England and Mountain West regions.
Languages
English,Goidelic languages,Scots,Cornish,Welsh
Religion
Christian MainlyProtestant (esp.Baptist,Congregationalist,Episcopalian,Methodist,Presbyterian andQuaker), to a lesser extentCatholic andLatter-day Saint (Although the Latter is significant inUtah) as well asnon-religious, along with converts toOrthodox Christianity,Islam,Judaism,eastern religions, etc.
Related ethnic groups
English Americans Scottish Americans Welsh Americans Ulster Scots Americans Manx Americans Cornish Americans Americans British Canadians Gaels Britons Orcadians Irish Americans White Americans European Americans Old Stock Americans

British Americans usually refers toAmericans whoseancestral origin originates wholly or partly in theUnited Kingdom (England,Scotland,Wales, andNorthern Ireland and also theIsle of Man, theChannel Islands, andGibraltar). It is primarily a demographic or historical research category for people who have at least partial descent from peoples ofGreat Britain and the modernUnited Kingdom, i.e.English,Scottish,Welsh,Scotch-Irish,Orcadian,Manx,Cornish Americans and those from theChannel Islands andGibraltar.

Based on 2020American Community Survey estimates, 1,934,397 individuals identified as having British ancestry, while a further 25,213,619 identified as having English ancestry, 5,298,861 Scottish ancestry and 1,851,256 Welsh ancestry. The total of these groups, at 34,298,133, was 10.5% of the total population. A further 31,518,129 individuals identified as having Irish ancestry, but this is not differentiated between modernNorthern Ireland (part of theUnited Kingdom) and theRepublic of Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom during the greatest phase of Irish immigration. Figures for Manx and Cornish ancestries are not separately reported, although Manx was reported prior to 1990, numbering 9,220 on the 1980 census, and some estimates put Cornish ancestry as high as 2 million. This figure also does not include people reporting ancestries in countries with majority or plurality British ancestries, such as Canadian, South African, New Zealander (21,575) or Australian (105,152).^[4] There has been a significant drop overall, especially from the1980 census where 49.59 million people reported English ancestry and larger numbers reportedScottish,Welsh andNorthern Irish ancestry also.

Demographers regard current figures as a "serious under-count", as a large proportion of Americans of British descent have a tendency to simply identify as 'American' since1980 where over 13.3 million or 5.9% of the total U.S. population self-identified as "American" or "United States", this was counted under "not specified".^[5] This response is highly overrepresented in theUpland South, a region settled historically by the British.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]} Those of mixed European ancestry may identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.^[12] Of the top ten family names in the United States (2010), seven have English origins or having possible mixed British Isles heritage (such as Welsh, Scottish or Cornish), the other three being of Spanish origin.^[13]

Not to be confused are cases when the term is also used in an entirely different (although possibly overlapping) sense to refer to people who aredual citizens of both the United Kingdom and the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Americans of British heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply "American" due to the many historic, linguistic and cultural ties betweenGreat Britain and the U.S. and their influence on the country's population. A leading specialist, Charlotte Erickson, found them to be ethnically "invisible".^[14] This may be due to the early establishment of British settlements; as well as to non-English groups having emigrated in order to establish significant communities.^[15]

Table below shows census results between 1980 (when data on ancestry was first collected) and the 2020 census. Response rates for the question on ancestry was 83.1% (1980) 90.4% (1990) and 80.1% (2000) for the total population of the United States.^[16][17]

According to estimates by Thomas L. Purvis (1984), published in theEuropean ancestry of the United States, gives the ethnic composition of the American colonies from 1700 to 1755. British ancestry in 1755 was estimated to be 63%, comprising 52% English and Welsh, 7.0% Scots-Irish, and 4% Scottish.^[26]

The White Population of the United States in1920, apportioned according to theNational Origins Formula prescribed by §11(c) of theImmigration Act of 1924. About 43.5% ofWhite Americans were deemed to be ofcolonial stock descended from the population enumerated in1790, more than 3/4 of whom fromGreat Britain.^[27]

European Americans in1790, by nationality, according to the preliminaryCentury of Population Growth estimate in 1909 (top half) and revisedAmerican Council of Learned Societies study estimates accepted by theCensus Bureau in 1929 (bottom half).^[28][29]

The ancestry of the 3,929,214 population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the very first United States official census and assigning them a country of origin.^[15]There is debate over the accuracy between the studies with individual scholars and the Federal Government using different techniques and conclusion for the ethnic composition.^[30][15]A study published in 1909 titledA Century of Population Growth by the Census Bureau estimated the British origin combined were around 90% of the white population.^[31][32][33]

Another source by Thomas L. Purvis in 1984^[34] estimated that people of British ancestry made up about 62% of the total population or 74% of the white orEuropean American population.^[34]Some 81% of the total United States population was ofEuropean heritage.^[35]Around 757,208 were of African descent with 697,624 being slaves.^[36]

Estimated British American population in theContinental United States as of the1790 Census.^[28]

State or Territory
	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland								British Isles Total
	Great Britain				British Total		Ireland
	English[a]		Scotch				Irish
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Connecticut	223,437	96.21%	6,425	2.77%	229,862	98.98%	1,589	0.68%	231,451	99.66%
Delaware	39,966	86.30%	3,473	7.50%	43,439	93.80%	1,806	3.90%	45,245	97.70%
Georgia	43,948	83.10%	5,923	11.20%	49,871	94.30%	1,216	2.30%	51,087	96.60%
Kentucky	50,802	83.10%	6,847	11.20%	57,649	94.30%	1,406	2.30%	59,055	96.60%
Maine	89,515	93.14%	4,154	4.32%	93,669	97.46%	1,334	1.39%	95,003	98.85%
Maryland	175,265	84.00%	13,562	6.50%	188,827	90.50%	5,008	2.40%	193,835	92.90%
Massachusetts	354,528	95.00%	13,435	3.60%	367,963	98.60%	3,732	1.00%	371,695	99.60%
New Hampshire	132,726	94.06%	6,648	4.71%	139,374	98.77%	1,346	0.95%	140,720	99.72%
New Jersey	98,620	58.03%	13,156	7.74%	111,776	65.77%	12,099	7.12%	123,875	72.89%
New York	245,901	78.22%	10,034	3.19%	255,935	81.41%	2,525	0.80%	258,460	82.21%
North Carolina	240,309	83.10%	32,388	11.20%	272,697	94.30%	6,651	2.30%	279,348	96.60%
Pennsylvania	249,656	58.97%	49,567	11.71%	299,223	70.68%	8,614	2.03%	307,837	72.71%
Rhode Island	62,079	95.99%	1,976	3.06%	64,055	99.05%	459	0.71%	64,514	99.76%
South Carolina	115,480	82.38%	16,447	11.73%	131,927	94.11%	3,576	2.55%	135,503	96.66%
Tennessee	26,519	83.10%	3,574	11.20%	30,093	94.30%	734	2.30%	30,827	96.60%
Vermont	81,149	95.39%	2,562	3.01%	83,711	98.40%	597	0.70%	84,308	99.10%
Virginia	375,799	85.00%	31,391	7.10%	407,190	92.10%	8,842	2.00%	416,032	94.10%
United States	2,605,699	82.14%	221,562	6.98%	2,827,261	89.12%	61,534	1.94%	2,888,795	91.06%

The 1909Century of Population Growth report came under intense scrutiny in the 1920s; its methodology was subject to criticism over fundamental flaws that cast doubt on the accuracy of its conclusions. The catalyst for controversy had been passage of theImmigration Act of 1924, which imposed numerical quotas on each country ofEurope limiting the number of immigrants to be admitted out of a finite total annual pool. The size of each national quota was determined by theNational Origins Formula, in part computed by estimating the origins of thecolonial stock population descended fromWhite Americans enumerated in the1790 Census. The undercount of other colonial stocks likeGerman Americans andIrish Americans would thus have contemporary policy consequences. When CPG was produced in 1909, the concept of independentIreland did not even exist. CPG made no attempt to further classify its estimated 1.9% Irish population to distinguishCelticIrish Catholics ofGaelic Ireland, who in 1922 formed the independentIrish Free State, from theScotch-Irish descendants ofUlster Scots andAnglo-Irish of thePlantation of Ulster, which becameNorthern Ireland and remained part of theUnited Kingdom. In 1927, proposed immigration quotas based on CPG figures were rejected by the President's Committee chaired by theSecretaries of State,Commerce, andLabor, with the President reporting to Congress "the statistical and historical information available raises grave doubts as to the whole value of these computations as the basis for the purposes intended."^[29]Among the criticisms ofA Century of Population Growth:

• CPG failed to account forAnglicization of names, assuming any surname that could be English was actually English
• CPG failed to consider first names even when obviously foreign, assuming anyone with a surname that could be English was actually English
• CPG failed to consider regional variation in ethnic settlement e.g. surnameRoot could be assumed English inVermont (less than 1% German), but more commonly a variant of GermanRoth in states with largeGerman American populations like populousPennsylvania (home to moreGermans than the entire population of Vermont)
• CPG started by classifying all names as Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, or other. All remaining names which could not be classed with one of the 6 other listed nationalities, nor identified by the Census clerk as too exotic to be English, were assumed to be English
• CPG classification was an unscientific process by Census clerks with no training in history, genealogy, or linguistics, nor were scholars in those fields consulted
• CPG estimates were produced by a linear process with no checks on potential errors nor opportunity for peer review or scholarly revision once an individual clerk had assigned a name to a nationality

Concluding that CPG "had not been accepted by scholars as better than a first approximation of the truth", theCensus Bureau commissioned a study to produce new scientific estimates of the colonial American population, in collaboration with theAmerican Council of Learned Societies, in time to be adopted as basis for legal immigration quotas in 1929, and later published in the journal of theAmerican Historical Association, reproduced in the table below. Note: as in the original CPG report, the "English" category encompassedEngland and Wales, grouping together all names classified as either "Anglican" (fromEngland) or "Cambrian" (fromWales).^[29]

Estimated British American population in theContinental United States as of the1790 Census^[29]

State or Territory
	United Kingdom								British Isles Total
	Great Britain				British Total		Ulster
	English[a]		Scotch				Scotch-Irish
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Connecticut	155,598	67.00%	5,109	2.20%	160,707	69.20%	4,180	1.80%	164,887	71.00%
Delaware	27,786	60.00%	3,705	8.00%	31,491	68.00%	2,918	6.30%	34,409	74.30%
Georgia	30,357	57.40%	8,197	15.50%	38,554	72.90%	6,082	11.50%	44,636	84.40%
Kentucky &Tenn.	53,874	57.90%	9,305	10.00%	63,179	67.90%	6,513	7.00%	69,692	74.90%
Maine	57,664	60.00%	4,325	4.50%	61,989	64.50%	7,689	8.00%	69,678	72.50%
Maryland	134,579	64.50%	15,857	7.60%	150,436	72.10%	12,102	5.80%	162,538	77.90%
Massachusetts	306,013	82.00%	16,420	4.40%	322,433	86.40%	9,703	2.60%	332,136	89.00%
New Hampshire	86,078	61.00%	8,749	6.20%	94,827	67.20%	6,491	4.60%	101,318	71.80%
New Jersey	79,878	47.00%	13,087	7.70%	92,965	54.70%	10,707	6.30%	103,672	61.00%
New York	163,470	52.00%	22,006	7.00%	185,476	59.00%	16,033	5.10%	201,509	64.10%
North Carolina	190,860	66.00%	42,799	14.80%	233,659	80.80%	16,483	5.70%	250,142	86.50%
Pennsylvania	149,451	35.30%	36,410	8.60%	185,861	43.90%	46,571	11.00%	232,432	54.90%
Rhode Island	45,916	71.00%	3,751	5.80%	49,667	76.80%	1,293	2.00%	50,960	78.80%
South Carolina	84,387	60.20%	21,167	15.10%	105,554	75.30%	13,177	9.40%	118,731	84.70%
Vermont	64,655	76.00%	4,339	5.10%	68,994	81.10%	2,722	3.20%	71,716	84.30%
Virginia	302,850	68.50%	45,096	10.20%	347,946	78.70%	27,411	6.20%	375,357	84.90%
1790 Census Area	1,933,416	60.94%	260,322	8.21%	2,193,738	69.15%	190,075	5.99%	2,383,813	75.14%
Northwest Territory	3,130	29.81%	428	4.08%	3,558	33.89%	307	2.92%	3,865	36.81%
French America	2,240	11.20%	305	1.53%	2,545	12.73%	220	1.10%	2,765	13.83%
Spanish America	610	2.54%	83	0.35%	693	2.89%	60	0.25%	753	3.14%
United States	1,939,396	60.10%	261,138	8.09%	2,200,534	68.19%	190,662	5.91%	2,391,196	74.10%

The 1980 census was the first that asked people'sancestry.^[37] The 1980 United States Census reported 61,327,867 individuals or 31.67% of the total U.S. population self-identified as having British descent.In 1980, 16,418 Americans reported "Northern Islander". NoScots-Irish (descendants ofUlster-Scots) ancestry was recorded, although over ten million people identified as Scottish.^[38]This figure fell to over 5 million each in the following census when the Scotch-Irish were first counted.^[39]

Over 90.4% of the United States population reported at least one ancestry, 9.6% (23,921,371) individuals as "not stated" with a total of 11.0% being "not specified".^[40] Additional responses were Cornish (3,991), Northern Irish 4,009 and Manx 6,317.^[41]

Most of the population who stated their ancestry as "American" (20,625,093 or 7.3%) are said to be of old colonialBritish ancestry.^[42]

English

Scottish

Scots-Irish

Welsh

Following are the top 10 highest percentage of people of English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry, in U.S. communities with 500 or more total inhabitants (for the total list of the 101 communities, see references)^[44][45][46]

1. Hildale, Utah 66.9%
2. Colorado City, Arizona 52.7%
3. Milbridge, Maine 41.1%
4. Panguitch, Utah 40.0%
5. Beaver, Utah 39.8%
6. Enterprise, Utah 39.4%
7. East Machias, Maine 39.1%
8. Marriott-Slaterville, Utah 38.2%
9. Wellsville, Utah 37.9%
10. Morgan, Utah 37.2%

1. Lonaconing, Maryland town 16.1%
2. Jordan, Illinois township 12.6%
3. Scioto, Ohio township 12.1%
4. Randolph, Indiana township 10.2%
5. Franconia, New Hampshire town 10.1%
6. Topsham, Vermont town 10.0%
7. Ryegate, Vermont town 9.9%
8. Plainfield, Vermont town 9.8%
9. Saratoga Springs, Utah town 9.7%
10. Barnet, Vermont town 9.5%

1. Malad City, Idaho city 21.1%
2. Remsen, New York town 14.6%
3. Oak Hill, Ohio village 13.6%
4. Madison, Ohio township 12.7%
5. Steuben, New York town 10.9%
6. Franklin, Ohio township 10.5%
7. Plymouth, Pennsylvania borough 10.3%
8. Jackson, Ohio city 10.0%
9. Lake, Pennsylvania township 9.9%
10. Radnor, Ohio township 9.8%

As of 2020, the distribution of British Americans (combined English, Welsh, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and British ancestry self-identification) across the 50 states and DC is as presented in the following table:

Estimated British American population by state^[47][48]

State	Number	Percentage
Alabama	593,684	12.13%
Alaska	95,555	12.97%
Arizona	880,800	12.28%
Arkansas	362,319	12.03%
California	3,194,332	8.12%
Colorado	891,059	15.67%
Connecticut	410,316	11.49%
Delaware	125,678	12.99%
District of Columbia	62,960	8.97%
Florida	2,182,375	10.29%
Georgia	1,229,670	11.69%
Hawaii	85,508	6.02%
Idaho	413,867	23.59%
Illinois	1,039,812	8.18%
Indiana	827,256	12.35%
Iowa	363,077	11.53%
Kansas	424,001	14.56%
Kentucky	689,667	15.46%
Louisiana	362,382	7.77%
Maine	359,023	26.78%
Maryland	643,269	10.65%
Massachusetts	886,192	12.89%
Michigan	1,259,125	12.62%
Minnesota	455,104	8.13%
Mississippi	326,418	10.95%
Missouri	800,254	13.07%
Montana	187,084	17.62%
Nebraska	214,299	11.14%
Nevada	317,810	10.49%
New Hampshire	321,821	23.75%
New Jersey	606,095	6.82%
New Mexico	206,995	9.87%
New York	1,399,358	7.17%
North Carolina	1,618,439	15.58%
North Dakota	50,522	6.64%
Ohio	1,508,197	12.92%
Oklahoma	473,455	11.99%
Oregon	731,409	17.51%
Pennsylvania	1,465,777	11.46%
Rhode Island	142,889	13.51%
South Carolina	748,602	14.70%
South Dakota	77,081	8.77%
Tennessee	1,004,100	14.83%
Texas	2,667,892	9.32%
Utah	1,044,688	33.15%
Vermont	152,659	24.45%
Virginia	1,254,899	14.75%
Washington	1,201,638	16.00%
West Virginia	293,448	16.24%
Wisconsin	471,045	8.11%
Wyoming	111,384	19.16%
United States	37,235,289	11.40%

TheBritish diaspora consists of the scattering ofBritish people and their descendants whoemigrated from the United Kingdom. The diaspora is concentrated in countries that had mass migration such as the United States (as well asCanada,Australia,New Zealand,South Africa andZimbabwe) and that are part of theEnglish-speaking world. A 2006 publication from theInstitute for Public Policy Research estimated 5.6 million British-born people lived outside of the United Kingdom.^[49][50]

After theAge of Discovery, the British were one of the earliest and largest communities to emigrate out of Europe, and theBritish Empire's expansion during the latter half of the 18th century, throughout the 19th century and first quarter of the 20th century saw an "extraordinary dispersion of the British people", with particular concentrations "inAustralasia andNorth America", and to some degree intoAfrica andSouth Asia.^[51]

The British Empire was "built on waves of migration overseas by British people",^[52] who left the United Kingdom and "reached across the globe and permanently affected population structures in three continents".^[51] As a result of theBritish colonization of the Americas, what became the United States was "easily the greatest single destination of emigrant British".^[51]

Historically in the1790 United States census estimate and presently inAustralia,Canada, andNew Zealand "people of British origin came to constitute the majority of the population" contributing to these states becoming integral to theAnglosphere.^[52] There is also a significant population of people with British ancestry inSouth Africa and inBritish Overseas Territories.^{[citation needed]}

An English presence in North America began with theRoanoke Colony andColony of Virginia in the late-16th century during the reign ofTudor queenElizabeth I, but the first successful English settlement was established in 1607, on theJames River atJamestown. By the 1610s, an estimated 1,300 English people had travelled to North America, the "first of many millions from the British Isles".^[53] In 1620, thePilgrims established the English imperial venture ofPlymouth Colony, beginning "a remarkable acceleration of permanent emigration from England" with over 60% of trans-Atlantic English migrants settling in theNew England Colonies.^[53] During the 17th century, an estimated 350,000 English, Welsh and Cornish migrants arrived in North America, which in the century after theActs of Union 1707 was surpassed in rate and number by Scottish and Irish migrants.^[54]

The British policy ofsalutary neglect for its North American colonies intended to minimize trade restrictions as a way of ensuring they stayed loyal to British interests.^[55] This permitted the development of theAmerican Dream, a cultural spirit distinct from that of its British founders.^[55] TheThirteen Colonies ofBritish America began an armed rebellion with French support against British rule in 1775 when they rejected theright of theParliament of Great Britain to govern themwithout representation; they proclaimed their independence in 1776, and subsequently constituted the first thirteen states of the United States of America, which became asovereign state in 1781 with the ratification of theArticles of Confederation. The1783 Treaty of Paris represented Great Britain's formal acknowledgment of the United States' sovereignty at the end of theAmerican Revolutionary War.^[56]

In the originalThirteen Colonies, most laws contained strong elements found in the Englishcommon law system.^{[citation needed]}

The vast majority of theFounding Fathers of the United States were of mixed British extraction. Most of them were of English descent, with smaller numbers of those of Scottish, Irish Protestant or Scots-Irish, and Welsh ancestry. A minority were of high social status and can be classified asWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP). Many of the prewar WASP elite were Loyalists who left the new nation, some moving north to the Canadian colonies which remained under British rule.^[57]

Nevertheless, longstanding cultural and historical ties have, in more modern times, resulted in theSpecial Relationship, the exceptionally close political, diplomatic and military co-operation ofUnited Kingdom – United States relations.^[62]Linda Colley, a professor of history atPrinceton University and specialist in Britishness, suggested that because of their strong colonial influence on the United States, the British find Americans a "mysterious and paradoxical people, physically distant but culturally close, engagingly similar yet irritatingly different".^[63]

For over two centuries (1789–2009) of early U.S. history, all Presidents with the exception of two (Van Buren and Kennedy) were descended from the varied colonialBritish stock, from the Pilgrims and Puritans to the Scotch-Irish and English who settledAppalachia, with more recent presidents such asJoe Biden andDonald Trump having partial British ancestry.^[64]

Much ofAmerican culture shows influences from nation states ofBritish culture. Colonial ties to Great Britain spread theEnglish language, legal system and other cultural attributes.^[65] Historian David Hackett Fischer has posited that four major streams of immigration from the British Isles in the colonial era contributed to the formation of a new American culture, summarized as follows:

• East Anglia toNew England –TheExodus of the English Puritans (Pilgrims andPuritans influenced theNortheastern United States' corporate and educational culture)^[66]
• TheSouth of England to thelowland South –TheCavaliers andIndentured Servants (Gentry influenced theSouthern United States' plantation culture)^[67]
• Northern England to theDelaware Valley –The Friends' Migration (Quakers influenced theMiddle Atlantic andMidwestern United States' industrial culture)^[68]
• TheScottish Lowlands to theBackcountry –The Flight fromNorth Britain (Scotch-Irish, of lowland Scottish andborderEnglish descent, influenced theWestern United States' ranch culture and theSouthern United States' common agrarian culture)^[69]

Fischer's theory acknowledges the presence of other groups of immigrants during the colonial period, both from the British Isles (the Welsh and the Highland Scots) and not (Germans, Dutch, and French Huguenots), but believes that these did not culturally contribute as substantially to the United States as his main four.

Apple pie –New England was the first region to experience large-scaleEnglish colonization in the early 17th century, beginning in 1620, and it was dominated byEast Anglian Calvinists, better known as thePuritans. Baking was a particular favorite of the New Englanders and was the origin of dishes seen today as quintessentially "American", such asapple pie and the oven-roastedThanksgiving turkey.^[70] "As American as apple pie" is a well-known phrase used to suggest that something is all-American.

Buick –David Dunbar Buick was aScottish-born American, aDetroit-based inventor, best known for founding the Buick Motor Company.^{[citation needed]}

Harley-Davidson – The Davidson brothers were of Scottish descent (William. A., Walter andArthur Davidson) andWilliam S. Harley of English descent. Along withIndian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company was the largest and most recognizable Americanmotorcycle manufacturer.^[71]

Baseball – The earliest recorded game of base-ball for which the original source survives, involved the family ofGeorge II of Great Britain, played indoors in London in November 1748. The Prince is reported as playing "Bass-Ball" again in September 1749 inWalton-on-Thames, Surrey, against Lord Middlesex.^[72] The English lawyer William Bray wrote in his diary that he had played a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 inGuildford, also inSurrey.^[73][74] English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball onEaster Monday 1755 inGuildford,Surrey; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008.^[75][76] This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by British immigrants. The first appearance of the term that exists in print was in "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" in 1744, where it is called Base-Ball. Today,rounders, which has been played in England sinceTudor times, holds a similarity to baseball. Although, literary references to early forms of "base-ball" in the United Kingdom pre-date use of the term "rounders".^[77]

In addition to baseball,American football is a sport that developed fromsoccer andRugby, which are both sports that originated in the British Isles.^[78]

Bowling orten-pin bowling derived from Nine-Pins (nine-pin bowling) brought over by early British settlers.

TheContinental Union Flag is considered to be the first nationalflag of the United States.^[79] The design consisted of 13 stripes, red and white, representing the originalThirteen Colonies, thecanton on the upper left-hand corner bearing the BritishUnion Flag, the red cross of St. George of England with the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. The flag was first flown on December 2, 1775, byJohn Paul Jones (then a Continental Navy lieutenant) on the shipAlfred in Philadelphia).^[79]

• Birmingham afterBirmingham, England
• Oxford afterOxford, England
• Montgomery afterMontgomery, Powys, Wales

• Westminster afterWestminster inLondon, England
• Exeter afterExeter, England
• Windsor afterWindsor, Berkshire, in England

• Aberdeen Ghost town named afterAberdeen inScotland
• Derby afterDerby, England
• Rugby afterRugby in England

• Essex, Connecticut afterEssex, England
• Greenwich, Connecticut afterGreenwich, England
• Manchester, Connecticut afterManchester, England
• New London, Connecticut afterLondon, England
• Norfolk, Connecticut afterNorfolk, England

• Dover afterDover, England
• Kent County, Delaware afterKent, England
• Wilmington named byProprietorThomas Penn after his friendSpencer Compton,Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister in the reign ofGeorge II of Great Britain.

• Windermere, named forWindermere, Westmorland,^[80] the largest lake of theLake District and England

• Leeds afterLeeds, England

• Aberdeen, Maryland afterAberdeenshire, Scotland
• Chester, Maryland afterChester, England
• Chestertown, Maryland afterChester, England
• Essex, Maryland afterEssex, England
• Glencoe, Maryland afterGlencoe, Scotland
• Hereford, Maryland afterHereford, England
• Kensington, Maryland afterKensington, England
• Manchester, Maryland afterManchester, England
• Olney, Maryland afterOlney, England
• Westminster, Maryland afterWestminster, England
• Salisbury, Maryland afterSalisbury, England

• Abington, Massachusetts afterAbingdon, England
• Attleboro, Massachusetts afterAttleborough, England
• Bedford, Massachusetts afterBedford, England
• Boston afterBoston, England^[81]
• Cambridge after theCity ofCambridge, England^[82]
• Charlton, Massachusetts afterCharlton, London, England
• Chelsea, Massachusetts afterChelsea, England
• Falmouth, Massachusetts afterFalmouth, England
• Gloucester afterGloucester andGloucestershire, England
• Hampshire County, Massachusetts afterHampshire, England
• Mansfield, Massachusetts afterMansfield, England
• Middlesex County, Massachusetts afterMiddlesex, England
• Plymouth, Massachusetts afterPlymouth, England
• Somerset, Massachusetts afterSomerset, England
• Southampton afterSouthampton, England^[83]
• Suffolk County, Massachusetts afterSuffolk, England
• Swansea, Massachusetts afterSwansea,Wales
• Taunton, Massachusetts afterTaunton, England
• Weymouth, Massachusetts afterWeymouth, Dorset, England
• Worcester, Massachusetts afterWorcester, England

• Birmingham afterBirmingham, England
• Plymouth afterPlymouth, England

• New Hampshire state (afterHampshire^[84])
• Derry, New Hampshire afterDerry, Northern Ireland
• Durham, New Hampshire afterDurham, England
• Exeter, New Hampshire afterExeter, England
• Londonderry, New Hampshire afterLondonderry, Northern Ireland
• Manchester afterManchester, England^[85]
• New London, New Hampshire afterLondon, England
• Nottingham, New Hampshire afterNottinghamshire
• Plymouth, New Hampshire afterPlymouth, England
• Portsmouth, New Hampshire afterPortsmouth, England

• New Jersey andJersey City afterJersey

• New York andNew York City afterYork, England
• Albany after theDuke of Albany

• Durham, North Carolina andDurham County, North Carolina afterDurham, England
• Halifax, North Carolina andHalifax County, North Carolina afterHalifax, England
• Brunswick County, North Carolina afterHouse of Brunswick
• New Hanover County, North Carolina afterHouse of Hanover
• Northampton County, North Carolina afterNorthampton, England
• Richmond County, North Carolina afterRichmond, London

• Kendal, Ohio afterKendal, Westmorland.^[86]
• Liverpool, Medina County Ohio andEast Liverpool, Ohio, after Liverpool, England.^{[citation needed]}

• Bucks County afterBuckinghamshire, England
• Chester County andChester afterChester, England
• Carlisle, Pennsylvania afterCarlisle, England
• Darby derived fromDerby (pronounced"Darby"), thecounty town ofDerbyshire (pronounced"Darbyshire")^[87]
• Lancaster County andLancaster after the city ofLancaster in the county ofLancashire in England, the native home of John Wright, one of the earlysettlers.^[88]
• Reading, Berks County afterReading, Berkshire, England
• Warminster after a small town in the county of Wiltshire, at the western extremity of Salisbury Plain, England.^[89]
• York, Pennsylvania afterYork, England

• Bronte, named for English novelistCharlotte Brontë (1816–1855).^[90]
• Cheapside, afterCheapside, a London street.^[90]
• Derby, after Derby, England.^[90]
• Liverpool, after Liverpool, a port city traditionally in Lancashire, England.^[90]
• Newcastle, afterNewcastle upon Tyne, northeast England.^[90]

• Leeds afterLeeds, England

• Crewe, Virginia afterCrewe, England
• Dumfries, Virginia afterDumfries, Scotland
• Edinburg, Virginia afterEdinburgh, Scotland
• Falmouth, Virginia afterFalmouth, England
• Isle of Wight County, Virginia afterIsle of Wight, England
• Kilmarnock, Virginia afterKilmarnock, Scotland
• Glasgow, Virginia afterGlasgow, Scotland
• Gloucester, Virginia afterGloucester, England
• Richmond, Virginia andRichmond County, Virginia afterRichmond, London
• Lancaster County, Virginia afterLancashire, England
• Hampton, Virginia afterHampton, London, England
• Midlothian, Virginia afterMidlothian, Scotland
• New Kent County, Virginia afterKent County, England
• Norfolk, Virginia afterNorfolk, England
• Northampton County, Virginia afterNorthampton, England
• Northumberland County, Virginia afterNorthumberland, England
• Portsmouth, Virginia afterPortsmouth, England
• Stafford, Virginia afterStafford, England
• Suffolk, Virginia afterSuffolk, England
• Westmoreland County, Virginia after Westmoreland (now part ofCumbria, England)
• Winchester, Virginia afterWinchester, England

• Chilton, Wisconsin, fromChillington Hall, Staffordshire, the British ancestral home of an early settler.^{[citation needed]}
• Ripon, Wisconsin, after Ripon, North Yorkshire, the British ancestral home city of one of its earliest settlers,John S. Horner.^[91]

In addition, some places were named after the kings and queens of the former kingdoms ofEngland andIreland. The name Virginia was first applied by QueenElizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen") and Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.,^[92] theCarolinas were named afterKing Charles I andMaryland named so for his wife,Queen Henrietta Maria (Queen Mary). TheBorough ofQueens in New York was named afterCatherine of Braganza (Queen Catherine), the wife of theKing Charles II.^[93]

• Americans in the United Kingdom
• Anglo-Americans
• Anglo-Celtic Australians
• Britons in Mexico
• Cornish Americans
  • List of Cornish Americans
• English Americans
  • List of English Americans
• English diaspora
• Hyphenated American
• Irish Americans
  • List of Irish Americans
• Manx Americans
  • List of Manx Americans
• Scotch-Irish Americans
  • List of Scots-Irish Americans
• Scottish Americans
  • List of Scottish Americans
• Welsh Americans
  • List of Welsh Americans
• White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, called WASPs
• United Kingdom–United States relations

• Berthoff, Rowland Tappan (1953).British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790–1950.
• Bridenbaugh, Carl.Vexed and Troubled Englishmen, 1590–1642 (1976).
• Colley, Linda (1992),Britons: Forging the Nation, 1701–1837, Yale University Press,ISBN 978-0-300-05737-9
• Ember, Carol R.; et al. (2004).Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Springer.ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9.
• Erickson, Charlotte.Invisible Immigrants: The Adaptation of English and Scottish Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century America (1972_.
• Fischer, David Hackett (1989).Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways In America.
• Furer, Howard B., ed.The British in America: 1578–1970 (1972).
• Handlin, Oscar (1980). Orlov, Ann; Thernstrom, Stephan (eds.).Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. the standard reference source for all ethnic groups.
• McGill, David W., and John K. Pearce. "American families with English ancestors from the colonial era: Anglo Americans." inEthnicity and family therapy (1996): 451–466; reviews modern social psychology of family types.
• Marshall, Peter James (2001).The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-00254-7.
• Shepperson, Wilbur S.British emigration to North America: projects and opinions in the early Victorian period (1957), examines opinion in Britain.online
• Tennenhouse, Leonard.The Importance of Feeling English: American Literature and the British Diaspora, 1750–1850 (2007).
• Van Vugt, William E. "British (English, Scottish, Scots Irish, and Welsh) and British Americans, 1870–1940’." in Elliott Barkan, ed.,Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration (2013): 4:237+.
• Van Vugt, William E.British Buckeyes: The English, Scots, and Welsh in Ohio, 1700–1900 (2006).

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBritish diaspora in the United States.

• 1980 U.S. Census ancestry lists
• References
• 2000 Census Bureau ancestry figures

• Ethnic groups in the United States
• British diaspora in the United States
• American people of British descent
• British diaspora by country
• European diaspora in the United States

• Webarchive template wayback links
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from November 2019
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from February 2023
• Use American English from February 2023
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation
• Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2023
• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2023
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2024
• Commons category link is on Wikidata