SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has one of the most confusing state demonyms, according to an analysis of online search questions about what to call residents of various states.
Americans used Google search to ask what to call people from Utah more than any other state but Massachusetts during a 12-month period, according to a new analysis from promotional online store Pens.com.
The report relies on Google Keyword Planner data from June of 2023 to May of 2024, involving various formulations of the question: “What are people from (state) called?” Utah averaged 2,051 searches per month, behind Massachusetts’ 2,073 and Connecticut’s 1,772.
It may not seem important, but a Pens.com spokesperson said confusion about demonyms could invalidate official documents, and it’s also a source of local pride.
That’s the case in Utah, where state lawmakers settled debate over what we call ourselves by adopting “Utahn” as the state’s official demonym.
“While it might seem trivial, I think how we’re known and how people see Utahns is important,” said state Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, the sponsor of the bill. “We want to make sure they spell it correctly.”
Most Utahns and local news outlets, KSL.com included, have long referred to residents that way, but many out-of-staters and national publications like the New York Times often spell “Utahan” with an extra “a.”
Ninety percent of Utahns surveyed by Y2 Analytics said they prefer the “Utahn” spelling and nearly half said “Utahan” is not acceptable. Local news outlets used “Utahn” more than 99% of the time, according to Brigham Young University political scientist Quin Monson, who notes that most spellings of “Utahan” in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune are in letters to the editor and “when used by a snarky columnist to poke fun at some outsider’s incorrect spelling.”
That’s not the case in the national press, according to Monson, where the New York Times spells it correctly only 37% of the time and USA Today half the time. When presenting his bill in February, McCay shared a screenshot of a New York Times Crossword puzzle clue from 2023. The hint read, “Deseret News reader, typically,” and McCay confessed to being stumped by the six-letter word before realizing the answer was “Utahan.”
The Boston Globe is a relative outlier among the out-of-state press — it spells “Utahn” correctly nearly 85% of the time — and that may have something to do with residents of Massachusetts also frequently being mislabeled.
Although the U.S. Government Publishing Office lists the state’s demonym of choice as “Massachusettsan,” the state’s official demonym is “Bay Stater,” with the former “rarely uttered in New England,” according to Boston.com.
It’s too early to see if Utah’s new law will lead to fewer questions from Americans going forward, but now there is an official answer for curious internet users.