English American

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Total population
25,927,345 (2010 ACS)[1] Down from 1980 census[2]
Regions with significant populations
Throughout entire United States Plurality in Utah, Vermont [3], Maine and every Southern state[4]
California 4,946,554[4] Texas 3,083,323[4] Ohio 2,371,236[4] New York 2,320,503[4] Florida 2,232,514[4] Michigan 2,036,021[4] Illinois 1,808,333[4] North Carolina 1,778,008[4] Georgia 1,584,303[4] Tennessee 1,435,147[4] Pennsylvania 1,058,737[5]
Religion
Predominately Christian (Episcopalian • Methodist • Baptist • Mormon • Congregationalism • Other Protestant • Roman Catholic, etc.)  · Irreligious · Jewish · Buddhist and other minorities.
Related ethnic groups
Americans · American ethnicity · English people · English Canadians · British Americans

English Americans (occasionally known as Anglo-Americans, although this may have a wider linguistic meaning) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England.

According to American Community Survey in 2010 data, Americans reporting English ancestry made up an estimated 9.0% of the total U.S. population, and form the third largest European ancestry group after German Americans and Irish Americans.^[6] However, demographers regard this as an undercount, as the index of inconsistency is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency to identify simply as Americans^{[7][8][9][10]} or, if of mixed European ancestry, nominate a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.^[11] Throughout the nineteenth century, England was the largest investor in American land development, railroads, mining, cattle ranching, and heavy industry. Perhaps because English settlers gained easy acceptance, they founded few organizations dedicated to preserving the traditions of their homeland.

In the 1980 United States Census, over 49 million (49,598,035) Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 26.34% of the total population and largest reported group which, even today, would make them the largest ethnic group in the United States.^[12][13]. This outnumbered the population of England at the time.

In 1982, an opinion poll organization showed respondents a card listing a number of ethnic groups and asked, "Thinking both of what they have contributed to this country and have gotten from this country, for each one tell me whether you think, on balance, they've been a good or a bad thing for this country". The English were the top ethnic group with 66% saying they were a good thing for the United States, followed by the Irish at 62%.^[14]

Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents.

The overwhelming majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America were of English extraction, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, James Madison^[15] and Thomas Jefferson.

As with most immigrant groups, the English later sought economic prosperity and began migrating in large numbers without state support, particularly in the 19th century.^[16]

Sense of identity[link]

Americans of English heritage are often seen as simply "American" due to the many cultural ties between the two countries and their impact on the American population which has hardly disappeared. This is due to the fact that the non-English population did not arrive in full force overnight and implemented early on.^[17]

They are less likely to proclaim it in the face of the upsurge of ethnic pride and loyalties by African-Americans, Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Mexican-Americans or other ethnic groups. After centuries of intermarriage and internal geographic mobility, many are unable to determine a specific English origin. For these reasons, no other part of the pluralist American society is so difficult to describe as a separate entity as the English. English immigrants were and are often seen as an invisible ethnic group, due to the length of time their ancestors may have been in the United States with the founding colonists being English people.^[18]

There is little or no celebration of the English Patron Saint St. George's Day other than by the Boy Scouts of America^{[citation needed]}.

Number of English Americans[link]

Map with      England and the       United States highlighted. Shows the first permanent English settlement of Jamestown in 1607.

From the time of the first permanent English presence in the New World until 1900, these immigrants outnumbered all others, therefore the cultural pattern had been firmly established as the American model.^[19]

1775 estimates[link]

According to the United States Historical Census Data Base (USHCDB) (2002), the ethnic populations in the American Colonies of 1775 were:

1790 Census[link]

The United States Census of 1790 was the first census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 2, 1790. 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.^[22] The estimate results indicate that people of English ancestry made up about 47.5% of the total population or 60.9% of the European American population. Some 80.7% of the total United States population was of European heritage.^[23] Around 757,208 were of African descent with 697,624 being slaves. Of the remaining population, more than 75% was of British origin.^[24]

The states with the highest percentage of English ancestry were Massachusetts 82%, Vermont 76%, Rhode Island 71%, Virginia including West Virginia 68.5%, Connecticut 67%, Maryland incl.DC 64.5%, North Carolina 66%, New Hampshire 61%, South Carolina 60.2%, Maine 60%, Delaware 60%, Kentucky and Tennessee 57.9%, Georgia 57.4%, New York 52%, New Jersey 47%, Pennsylvania 35.3%,

2000 Census[link]

In the 2000 census, 24.5 million Americans reported English ancestry, 8.7% of the total U.S. population. This estimate is probably a serious undercount by over 30 million given that, in the 1980 census, around 50 million citizens claimed to be of at least partial English ancestry. In 1980, 23,748,772 Americans claimed wholly English ancestry and another 25,849,263 claimed English along with another ethnic ancestry.^[28]

In 1860, an estimated 11 million or almost 35% of the population of the United States was wholly or primarily of English ancestry. The population has increased by almost ten times the numbers in 1860. As with any ethnicity, Americans of English descent may choose to identify themselves as just 'American ethnicity' if their ancestry has been in the United States for many generations or if, for the same reason, they are unaware of their lineages.

English expatriates[link]

In total, there are estimated to be around 678,000 British born expatriates in the United States with the majority of these being English. ^[29] By American definition there are around 540,000 English people of any race in the United States, 40,000 Asian English, 20,000 Black British people and approximately 10,000 people of a mixed background.^[30]

Distribution[link]

Hildale, Utah has 66.9% of its population of English descent.

Panguitch, Utah has 40.0%.

Following are the top 20 highest percentages of people of English ancestry, in U.S. communities with 500 or more total inhabitants (for the total list of the 101 communities, see the reference):^[31]

1. Hildale, UT 66.9%
2. Colorado City, AZ 52.7%
3. Milbridge, ME 41.1%
4. Panguitch, UT 40.0%
5. Beaver, UT 39.8%
6. Enterprise, UT 39.4%
7. East Machias, ME 39.1%
8. Marriott-Slaterville, UT 38.2%
9. Wellsville, UT 37.9%
10. Morgan, UT 37.2%
11. Harrington, ME 36.9%
12. Farmington, UT 36.9%
13. Highland, UT 36.7%
14. Nephi, UT 36.4%
15. Fruit Heights, UT 35.9%
16. Addison, ME 35.6%
17. Farr West, UT 35.4%
18. Hooper, UT 35.0%
19. Lewiston, UT 35.0%
20. Plain City, UT 34.7%

States[link]

English Americans are found in large numbers throughout America, particularly in the Northeast and West. According to the 2000 US census, the 10 states with the largest populations of self reported English Americans are

English was the highest reported European ancestry in the states of Maine, Vermont and Utah; joint highest along with German in the Carolinas.

Maps[link]

Percentages by county.

Population by state.

Percentages by U.S. State.

On the left, a map showing percentages by county of Americans who declared English ancestry in the 2000 Census. Dark blue and purple colours indicate a higher percentage: highest in the east and west (see also Maps of American ancestries). Center, a map showing the population of English Americans by state. On the right, a map showing the percentages of English Americans by state.

History[link]

Reenactment of the first landing where John Smith claims the beach for England

A statue in Historic Jamestowne commemorating the site of the first permanent English settlement in America.

Early settlement and colonization[link]

English settlement in America began with Jamestown in the Virginia Colony in 1607. With the permission of James I, three ships (the Susan Constant, The Discovery, and The God Speed) sailed from England and landed at Cape Henry in April, under the captainship of Christopher Newport,^[16] who had been hired by the London Company to lead expeditions to what is now America.^[32]

The second successful colony was Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620 by people who later became known as the Pilgrims. Fleeing religious persecution in the East Midlands in England, they first went to Holland, but feared losing their English identity.^[33] Because of this, they chose to relocate to the New World, with their voyage being financed by English investors.^[34] In September 1620, 102 passengers set sail aboard the Mayflower, eventually settling at Plymouth Colony in November.^[35] This story has become a central theme in the United States cultural identity.

A number of English colonies were established under a system of proprietary governors, who were appointed under mercantile charters to English joint stock companies to found and run settlements.

England also took over the Dutch colony of New Netherland (including the New Amsterdam settlement), renaming it the Province of New York in 1664.^[36] With New Netherland, the English came to control the former New Sweden (in what is now Delaware), which the Dutch had conquered from Sweden earlier.^[37] This became part of Pennsylvania.

English immigration after 1776[link]

An estimated 3.5 million English emigrated to the U.S. after 1776.^[40] English settlers provided a steady and substantial influx throughout the nineteenth century. The first wave of increasing English immigration began in the late 1820s and was sustained by unrest in the United Kingdom until it peaked in 1842 and declined slightly for nearly a decade. Most of these were small farmers and tenant farmers from depressed areas in rural counties in southern and western England and urban laborers who fled from the depressions and from the social and industrial changes of the late 1820s-1840s. While some English immigrants were drawn by dreams of creating model utopian societies in America, most others were attracted by the lure of new lands, textile factories, railroads, and the expansion of mining.

A number of English settlers moved to United States from Australia in 1850s (then a British political territory), when California Gold Rush boomed; these included the so-called "Sydney Ducks" (see Australian Americans).

During the last years of 1860s, annual English immigration increased to over 60,000 and continued to rise to over 75,000 per year in 1872, before experiencing a decline. The final and most sustained wave of immigration began in 1879 and lasted until the depression of 1893. During this period English annual immigration averaged more than 82,000, with peaks in 1882 and 1888 and did not drop significantly until the financial panic of 1893.^[39] The building of America's transcontinental railroads, the settlement of the great plains, and industrialization attracted skilled and professional emigrants from England. Also, cheaper steamship fares enabled unskilled urban workers to come to America, and unskilled and semiskilled laborers, miners, and building trades workers made up the majority of these new English immigrants. While most settled in America, a number of skilled craftsmen remained itinerant, returning to England after a season or two of work.^{[citation needed]} Groups of English immigrants came to America as missionaries for the Salvation Army and to work with the activities of the Evangelical and LDS Churches.

The depression of 1893 sharply decreased English emigration to the United States, and it stayed low for much of the twentieth century. This decline reversed itself in the decade of World War II when over 100,000 English (18 percent of all European immigrants) came from England. In this group was a large contingent of war brides who came between 1945 and 1948. In these years four women emigrated from England for every man.^[39] In the 1950s, English immigration increased to over 150,000.and rose to 170,000 in the 1960s.^[41] While differences developed, it is not surprising that English immigrants had little difficulty in assimilating to American life. The American resentment against the policies of the British government^{[citation needed]}as rarely transferred to English settlers who came to America in the first decades of the nineteenth century.

Throughout American history, English immigrants and their descendants have been prominent in every level of government and in every aspect of American life. Eight of the first ten American presidents and more than that proportion of the 42 presidents, as well as the majority of sitting congressmen and congresswomen, are descended from English ancestors. The descendants of English expatriates are so numerous and so well integrated in American life that it is impossible to identify all of them. While they are the third largest ethnic nationality self reported in the 1990 census, they retain such a pervasive representation at every level of national and state government that, on any list of American senators, Supreme Court judges, governors, or legislators, they would constitute a plurality if not an outright majority.^[42] Today it is estimated that over 80 million Americans are of English ancestry.^{[citation needed]}

Political involvement[link]

Colonial period[link]

"The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles", by Capt. John Smith

John Trumbull's famous painting, Declaration of Independence. Two Red Ensigns, one British flag, and one English flag can be seen upon the wall.

.

As the earliest colonists of the United States, settlers from England and their descendants often held positions of power and made or helped make laws,^[43] often because many had been involved in government back in England.^[44] In the original 13 colonies, most laws contained elements found in the English common law system.^[45]

The Founding Fathers[link]

The lineage of most of the Founding Fathers was English. Such persons include Samuel Adams.^[46] Others signatories of the Declaration of Independence, such as Robert Morris were English born.^[47] Of the "Committee of Five" (the group delegated to draft the Declaration of Independence), John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin ^[48] of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut had English roots. The United States Declaration of Independence was written primarily by Thomas Jefferson.

Language[link]

English language distribution in the United States.

The English have contributed greatly to American life. Today, English is the most commonly spoken language in the U.S, where it is estimated that two thirds of all native speakers of English live.^[49] English was inherited from English colonization, and it is spoken by the vast majority of the population. It serves as the de facto official language: the language in which government business is carried out. According to the 1990 census, 94% of the U.S. population speak only English.^[50] Adding those who speak English "well" or "very well" brings this figure to 96%.^[50] Only 0.8% speak no English at all as compared with 3.6% in 1890. American English is different from British English in terms of spelling (a classic example being the dropped "u" in words such as color/colour), grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and slang usage. The differences are not usually a barrier to effective communication between an American English and a British English speaker, but there are certainly enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings, usually surrounding slang or region dialect differences.

Some states, like California, have amended their constitutions to make English the only official language, but in practice, this only means that official government documents must at least be in English, and does not mean that they should be exclusively available only in English. For example, the standard California Class C driver's license examination is available in 32 different languages.

Expressions[link]

"In for a penny, in for a pound" is an expression to mean, ("if you're going to take a risk at all, you might as well make it a big risk"), is used in the United States which dates back to the colonial period, when cash in the colonies was denominated in Pounds, shillings and Pence.^[51] Today, the one-cent coin is commonly known as a penny. A modern alternative expression is "In for a dime, in for a dollar".

American cultural icons[link]

American cultural icons, apple pie, baseball, and the American flag.

Much of American culture also shows influences from English culture.

American flag[link]

• Flag of the United States - Based on the British Grand Union Flag and is considered to be the first national flag of the United States, first flown on December 2, 1775.

Cuisine[link]

• Apple pie - New England was the first region to experience large scale English colonization in the early 17th century, beginning in 1620, and it was dominated by East Anglian Calvinists, better known as the Puritans. Baking was a particular favorite of the New Englanders and was the origin of dishes today seen as quintessentially "American", such as apple pie and the baked Thanksgiving turkey.^[52] "As American As Apple Pie" is a well known phrase used to imply everything that is All-American.

Harvest festivals[link]

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, Massachusetts by English Pilgrims in 1621.

• Thanksgiving -In England, thanks have been given for successful harvests since pagan times. The celebrations on this day usually include singing hymns, praying, and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in the festival known as Harvest Festival, Harvest Home or Harvest Thanksgiving. In the U.S. it has become a national secular holiday with religious origins, but in England it remains a Church festival giving thanks to God for the harvest. The first Thanksgiving was celebrated by English settlers to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive the brutal winter.^[53] The modern Thanksgiving holiday traces its origins from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. William Bradford is credited as the first to proclaim what the American cultural event is generally referred to as the "First Thanksgiving".

Sports[link]

English-born Henry Chadwick is often called the "father of Baseball".

• Baseball - English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008.^[54][55] This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by English 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 since Tudor times holds a similarity to Baseball. Although, literary references to early forms of "base-ball" in England pre-date use of the term "rounders".^[56]

• American football - can be traced to early versions of rugby football, played in England and first developed in American universities in the mid-19th century.^[57]

Music[link]

Another area of cultural influence are American Patriotic songs:

• American national anthem - takes its melody from the 18th century English song "To Anacreon in Heaven" written by John Stafford Smith from England for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London and lyrics written by Francis Scott Key of English descent. This became a well-known and recognized patriotic song throughout the United States, which was officially designated as the U.S. national anthem in 1931.^[58][59][60]

Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom.

• The Liberty Song - written by John Dickinson of English descent in 1768 to the music of Englishman William Boyce's "Heart of Oak", is perhaps the first patriotic song written in America. The song contains the line "by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall", the first recorded use of the sentiment.

• My Country, 'Tis of Thee - whose melody was derived from the British national anthem,^[61] also served as a de facto anthem before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner."^[62] On January 20, 2009 Aretha Franklin sang the song at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

• Amazing Grace - written by English poet and clergyman John Newton became such an icon in American culture that it has been used for a variety of secular purposes and marketing campaigns, placing it in danger of becoming a cliché.^[63]

Motorcycle maker[link]

• Harley-Davidson - co-founder was William S. Harley born to English parents, was one of the people who began the American motorcycle manufacturer.^[64]

Beverages[link]

Two of the world's most famous soft drinks were invented by Americans of English descent. Pemberton and Alderton are both English surnames.

Coca-Cola was formulated at the Eagle Drug and Chemical Company, a drugstore in Columbus, Georgia by John Pemberton, originally as a coca wine called Pemberton's French Wine Cocoa.^[65][66]

The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886.^[67] It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents^[68] a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time due to the belief that carbonated water was good for the health.^[69] Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured many diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence. Pemberton ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 of the same year in the Atlanta Journal.^[70]

Dr Pepper is a soft drink and was invented in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first made in 1885. Charles Courtice Alderton was born in Brooklyn, New York to English parents who was later sent to England to be educated.^[71][72] It is the oldest of the major brand soft drinks in America.^[73]

English family names[link]

Of the top ten family names in the United States, eight have English origins or having possible mixed British Isles heritage, the other two being of Spanish origin. This is the first time two surnames of non-British Isles origin have been in the top 10 most common family names. Many African Americans have their origins in slavery (i.e. slave name). Many of them came to bear the surnames of their former owners. Many freed slaves either created family names themselves or adopted the name of their former master. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, the top ten surnames in the United States are:^[74] In the last UK Census in 2001, surnames in England can be compared to the United States with 6 of the family names in England being in both their top ten.^[75] Many English surnames are also found in Ireland. This is attributable to a number of factors, including the Protestant Plantation of Ireland, as well as the imposition of the Penal Laws in the Middle Ages, which forced many Irish people to Anglicize their surnames. Also, in the 9th century, Viking invaders brought many Norse names to Ireland that they had already brought to England when they established and settled the Danelaw. Although some Scandinavian names may have been brought to England in pre-Viking times, especially in the North and East. Moreover, the Anglo-Normans who invaded Ireland in the 1170s brought many Norman French names which they had already spread to England.

English place names in the United States[link]

(left) Boston, MA is named after Boston, England. (center) The city of Pittsburgh, is named after Englishman William Pitt. (right) The State of Pennsylvania is named after William Penn.

There are many places in the United States named after places in England as a result of the many English settlers and explorers. These include New York (after the Duke of York^[89]), New Hampshire (after Hampshire^[90]), New Jersey after the British Crown Dependency of Jersey. Manchester,^[91] Boston,^[92] Southampton,^[93] Gloucester and the region of New England. In addition, some places were named after the English royal family. The name Virginia was first applied by Queen Elizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen") and Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.,^[94] the Carolinas were named after King Charles I and Maryland named so for his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria (Queen Mary) and also Georgia was named after King George II^[95]

Architecture[link]

Boston College (left) has some of the earliest examples of collegiate gothic architecture.
Georgian architecture (right) in Philadelphia. They all have influences from the Architecture of England.

Architecture such as the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. which was first designed by English-educated American Architect William Thornton. Also, many American college campuses, such as Yale, Princeton University, and the University of Delaware, have Gothic or Georgian looks.

Law[link]

The American legal system also has its roots in English law.^[96] For example, elements of the Magna Carta were incorporated into the United States constitution.^[97] English law prior to the revolution is still part of the law of the United States, and provides the basis for many American legal traditions and policies. After the revolution, English law was again adopted by the now independent American States.^[98]

Presidents of English descent[link]

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

William Henry Harrison

Franklin Pierce

Gerald Ford

George W Bush

Most of the Presidents of the United States have had English ancestry.^[99] The extent of English Heritage varies in the presidents with earlier presidents being predominantly of colonial English Yankee stock. Later US Presidents' ancestry can often be traced to ancestors from multiple nations in Europe, including England.

George Washington (English)

1st President 1789-97 (great-grandfather, John Washington from Purleigh, Essex, England.^[100][101])

John Adams (English)

2nd President 1797-1801 (great-great-grandfather, Henry Adams born 1583 Barton St David, Somerset, England, immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts.^[102][103])

Thomas Jefferson (English and Scots-English)

3rd President 1801–1809 (Maternal English ancestry from William Randolph.)

James Madison (English)

4th President 1809-17^[15]

John Quincy Adams (English)

6th President 1825-29 (Henry Adams born 1583 Barton St David, Somerset, England.^[102][103])

William Henry Harrison (English)

9th President 1841-1841 ^[104]

John Tyler (English)

10th President 1841-1845 ^[105]

Zachary Taylor (English)

12th President 1849-50

Millard Fillmore (English)

13th President 1850-1853 ^[106]

Franklin Pierce (English)

14th President 1853-1857 ^[107]

Abraham Lincoln (English, Welsh)

16th President 1861-65 (Samuel Lincoln baptised 1622 in Hingham, Norfolk, England, died in Hingham, Massachusetts.^[108][109])

Andrew Johnson (Scots-Irish and English)

17th President 1865-1869 ^[110]

Ulysses S. Grant (Scots-Irish, English & Scottish)

18th President, 1869-77

Rutherford B. Hayes (English)

19th President 1877-1881 ^[111]

James A. Garfield (English, Welsh and French)

20th President 1881-81 ^[112]

Chester A. Arthur (Scots-Irish and English)

21st President 1881-85

Grover Cleveland (Scots-Irish & English)

22nd and 24th President, 1885-89 and 1893-97

Benjamin Harrison (Scots-Irish & English)

23rd President, 1889-93

William McKinley (Scots-Irish & English)

25th President, 1897-1901

Theodore Roosevelt (Scots-Irish, Dutch, Scots, English & French)

26th President, 1901-09

William Howard Taft (Scots-Irish & English)

27th President 1909-13^[113][114]

Warren G. Harding (Scots-Irish & English)

29th President 1921-23^[115]

Calvin Coolidge (English)

30th President 1923-1929 ^[116]

Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dutch, French & English)

32nd President 1933-45

Harry S Truman (Scots-Irish, English & German)

33rd President 1945-53^[117][118]

Lyndon B. Johnson (English)

36th President 1963-69

Richard Nixon (Scots-Irish, Irish, English & German)

37th President, 1969-74

Gerald Ford (English)

38th President 1974-77

Jimmy Carter (Scotch-Irish & English)

39th President 1977-81 (Thomas Carter Sr. emigrated from England to Isle of Wight County, Virginia.^[119])

Ronald Reagan (Scots-Irish, Irish, English & Scottish)

40th President 1981-89: He was the great-grandson, on his father's side, of Irish migrants from County Tipperary who came to America via Canada and England in the 1840s. His mother was of Scottish and English ancestry.^[120]

George H. W. Bush (Scots-Irish, English, Dutch & German)

41st President 1989-93: County Wexford historians have found that his now apparent ancestor, Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke. Shunned by Henry II, he offered his services as a mercenary in the 12th-century Norman invasion of Wexford, Ireland in exchange for power and land. Strongbow married Aoife, daughter of Dermot MacMurrough, the Gaelic king of Leinster who had invited the Norman Invasion and is seen as one of Ireland's greatest traitors.^[121][122]

Bill Clinton (Scots-Irish & English)

42nd President 1993-2001

George W. Bush (Scots-Irish, English, Dutch, German & Welsh)

43rd President 2001-2009: Reynold Bush from Messing, Essex, England emigrated in 1631 to Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[123]

Barack Obama (Luo, English & Irish)

44th President 2009-: His maternal ancestors came to America from France, England, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland.^[124][125] His ancestors lived in New England and the South and by the 1800s most were in the Midwest. His father was Luo (or Jaluo) from Kenya, and was the first person in his family to travel or live outside of Africa.

Other notable English Americans[link]

See also[link]

	United States portal
	England portal

• Americans or American people
• Anglo America
• English (ethnic group)
• Anglo-American relations
• Anglo-Celtic Australian
• Anglosphere
• Boston Brahmin
• British American
• Demographic history of the United States
• English colonial empire
• English place names in the United States
• European American
• Immigration to the United States
• List of English Americans
• Scottish American
• Welsh American
• Maps of American ancestries
• White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
• Yankee

References[link]

v t e English diaspora Africa South Africa Asia Burma · India Americas Argentina · Brazil · Canada (Nova Scotia) · Chile · Jamaica · Paraguay · United States Europe Ireland (Old English · Anglo-Irish) · Byzantine Empire · Crimea Oceania Australia · New Zealand

English
Pronunciation	/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1]
Spoken in	(see below)
Native speakers	ca. 380 million  (2001)[2] L2: ≈ 250 million (2001)[2] to ≈ 1.8 billion (2004)[3]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo–Frisian Anglic English
Writing system	English alphabet (Latin script)
Official status
Official language in	54 countries 27 non-sovereign entities United Nations European Union Commonwealth of Nations CoE NATO NAFTA OAS OIC PIF UKUSA
Language codes
ISO 639-1	en
ISO 639-2	eng
ISO 639-3	eng
Linguasphere	52-ABA
Countries where English is an official or de facto official language, or national language, and is spoken fluently by the majority of the population   Countries where it is an official but not primary language
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

English is a West Germanic language spoken originally in England, and is now the most widely used language in the world.^[4] It is spoken as a first language by a majority of the inhabitants of several nations, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. It is the third most common native language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish,^[5] and the most commonly used as a second language; its total number of speakers – counting both native and non-native – exceeds those of any other language. English is an official language of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and United Nations, as well as in many world organisations.

English arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and what is now south-east Scotland, but was then under the control of the kingdom of Northumbria. Following the extensive influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century,^[6][7][8][9] it has been widely dispersed around the world, becoming the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions.^[10][11]

Historically, English originated from the fusion of closely related dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) settlers by the 5th century – with the word English being derived from the name of the Angles, and ultimately from their ancestral region of Angeln (in what is now Schleswig-Holstein).^[12] A significant number of English words are constructed based on roots from Latin, because Latin in some form was the lingua franca of the Christian Church and of European intellectual life.^[13] The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages^[14][15] to what had then become Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.

Owing to the assimilation of words from many other languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary. Modern English has not only assimilated words from other European languages but also from all over the world, including words of Hindi and African origin. The Oxford English Dictionary lists over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical, scientific, and slang terms.^[16][17]

Significance[link]

Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca,^[18][19] is the dominant language or in some instances even the required international language of communications, science, information technology, business, seafaring,^[20] aviation,^[21] entertainment, radio and diplomacy.^[22] Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late 19th century its reach was truly global.^[3] Following British colonisation from the 16th to 19th centuries, it became the dominant language in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The growing economic and cultural influence of the US and its status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's spread across the planet.^[19] English replaced German as the dominant language of science Nobel Prize laureates during the second half of the 20th century.^[23] English equalled and may have surpassed French as the dominant language of diplomacy during the last half of the 19th century.