What do you call people who hail from the Virgin Islands?

In an earlier posting, I wondered -- since the people of Poland are called Poles -- what do we call the people of Holland?

And I suggested in yet another posting that, luckily, this guy called Sang Nila Utama was short-sighted and mistook the animal (or visage?) he spotted for a lion. Hence, as legend has it, Singapura was so named and today we proudly call ourselves Singaporeans.

Fate might well have led us to be called Harimauporeans, Hantuporeans or even Babiporeans. I wonder why we never became Temasickies?

More recently, a Sunday Times article (20 Feb) featured foreigners here who make the effort to play ambassadors and tell Singaporeans more about their countries. That's when I learnt that the people of Madagascar are known as Malagasys (singular: Malagasy). So, don't call them Madagascaras, hor.

There is a term -- demonym -- that has nothing to do with demons but refers to the names given to people from regions, countries, states and provinces, cities, etc. The list below is selective.

Virgin Islands. Back in 1987, Singapore for the first time hosted the Miss Universe competition. I was asked to write a humour piece for the supplement The Straits Times ran to mark the occasion. So, I wondered if the nubile contestant from the Virgin Islands was a Virgin.

I think there was another contestant, from the British Virgin Islands. Good golly, a British Virgin.

The reality is less exciting: Virgin Islander and British Virgin Islander respectively.

Staying with the exotic Pacific islands, the people of Kiribati are I-Kiribati and those from Vanuatu are Ni-Vanuatu. And if you think you can be a towering Gullivers in the land known as the Federated States of Micronesia -- whose people are called Micronesians -- think again. The guys there at least are quite hunky, really.

Moving to Africa, the people of Botswana are Motswana (singular) and Batswana (plural). Likewise, Lesotho: Mosotho (singular) and Basotho (plural).

Mozambique: Hey, it's Mozambicans, not Mozambiqueers!

Burkina Faso: Burkinans or Burkinabes.

We should be familiar with how we refer to our fellow Asians. For the record, its Filipinos/Filipinas, Macans (for people of Macau) and Maldivans (not Maldivers!).

The people of Holland are of course Dutch (or Hollanders). The people of Greece are Greeks, not Grecians, as George W. Bush once called them. But we do say antique Grecian vase, for example. And do not call the people of Turkey "Turkeys" if you don't want to be made into shiskebab. Turks, if you please.

It gets a bit tricky for those countries with "tan" at the end. Pakistanis? Easy peasy. Ditto with Afghanis. You can choose either Uzbeks or Uzbekistanis. But it's strictly Turkmen (both men and women) in the case of Turkmenistan. Kurdistan? Kurds (no funny jokes about whether there's a Turdistan, please).

Tomorrow, I'll delve into the demonyms for some world cities. For sure, the people of Cairo -- a place very much in the news recently -- are not Cairoeans!