Just what do you call yourself?
Ed Quillen
The other day I received an email from an acquaintance whom I’d lost touch with. The last I’d heard, he was living in Taos, N.M. In my reply, I started to ask if he was still a “Taosite.” Or maybe “Taosian.” Neither seemed right, so I settled for “Are you still living in Taos?”
As it turned out, he wasn’t, but I remained curious as to the proper term for a Taos resident, and eventually found an answer in The American Language, by H.L. Mencken. It says “Taoseño” or “Taoseña,” depending on gender.
Often this is an easy question to answer. I live in Salida, Colorado, so I’m a Salidan. (The town was founded as South Arkansas; had that awkward name remained I suppose I’d be a South Arkansawyer.) But am I a Coloradoan or Coloradan?
The rule is that if a place name ends in o, you just add an, as with Idahoan or Chicagoan; Idaho and Chicago both come from Native American words. That’s an important distinction, because Spanish-derived place names follow a different rule: drop the o, then add an, as in San Franciscan or New Mexican. So Coloradan it is, since colorado is a Spanish word for red.
Since I’ve practiced journalism in Colorado for nearly 40 years, I’ve learned many of these terms, like Denverites, Longmonters and Cotopaxians.
A couple of years ago, the editor of the weekly newspaper in America’s highest city proposed replacing Leadvillite with Leadvillian, but her readers objected to that, as well as the sinister-sounding Leadvillain.
I’m not sure about other nearby towns, like Saguache (pronounced suh-watch, not sa-goochie or saw-goash). Does it hold Saguachites or Saguachers? Are residents of the Park County seat Fairplayers or Fairplains or something else? I refer to residents of one town as Ponchans, but perhaps they should be Poncha Springsians. As for the folks who live at the ski resort north of the Gunnisonites, are they Crested Butteans, Crested Buttites or Crested Butters?
That might be easy to answer if I knew what residents of Butte, Mont., call themselves, but I don’t. For that matter, I don’t know what to call residents of Wyoming’s state capital; are they Cheyenners or perhaps Cheyennians? Does Laramie hold Laramites? Up in Idaho, are there Moscovites in Moscow? In Arizona, do Phœnicians live in Phœnix? Are there Pagers in Page?
Once in a while I encounter a clever twist, as a Durangutang or Durangutan from Durango, or a Montroid from Montrose. My favorite among these is a Lamartian from Lamar.
At any rate, I’d like to know what residents call themselves around the West, and I bet the copy editors at High Country News would like this information, too, since they have to deal with everyone from the Columbians (or perhaps Columbards or Columbusites) of southern New Mexico to the Republicans (or perhaps Republicites) of Republic in northern Washington. So, hit the reply button and let us all know.
After all, this could be the start of a reference work that would be fun to read, and often useful. Somebody, after all, must know the proper term for a resident of Couer d’ Alene or Needles, and sometimes the rest of us need to know that word.