Nationality: American or United States of America?

[VisaNutz]

I always thought nationality is usually not the name of the country - but the status of affiliation, such as Indian, Pakistani or American. However, I noticed in the U.S. Passport, under the "Nationality" field, they didn't put "American", but "United States of America".

Anyone care to comment?

 

[cafeconleche]

In the New Zealand passport, they write New Zealand. I don't know why, but I think with the US, one reason might be that other countries in North and South America don't like the fact that the US is called America, and that people from the US are called Americans, because everyone from these two continents is an American, in a way, or either a North or South American. I know that this is something people find annoying, but I'm not sure if it's something governments argue over. It could be.