Etymology: L, nomen, name, clamare, to call. a consistent, systematic method of naming used in a scientific discipline to denote classifications and avoid ambiguities in names, such as binomial nomenclature in biology and chemical nomenclature in chemistry.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander. To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter. And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.. This quote sums up pretty well how Yankees is really a contextual phrase.
The term Yankee now may mean any resident of New England or of any of the Northeastern United States. The original Yankees diffused widely across the northern United States, leaving their imprints in New York, the Upper Midwest, and places as far away as Seattle, San Francisco, and Honolulu.