Well, everybody born in the american continent is technically “american” too, including Central and South America. Is there a specific term in english for these people?
Edit: Thanks for all your answers, especially the wholesome ones and those patient enough to explain it thoroughly. Since we (South Americans) and you (North Americans) use different models/conventions of continent boundaries, it makes sense for you to go by “Americans”, while it doesn’t for us.
Honestly, Yankee is probably the best. Some southerners won’t like it, and westerners will probably be confused, but we all know it means American and it’s the only real term for one of us that doesn’t lend the question “and why do we call you this and not people from the United States of Mexico this”. Our country’s name is unfortunately extremely generic.
This is definitely not the universal term all americans would go by. Many even find it offensive.
Southerners use this term pejoratively sometimes. I wouldn’t assume every person is actually cool with it.
It always annoys me to be called a yank because my family is northern but I lived in the South for a while as a kid and they weren’t calling me a Yankee to be nice or fun. A lot of southerners are still butthurt about losing the US civil war and get tribalistic about it.