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I've heard Ukonian used, and I must say I rather like it, but I don't think it's a fully accepted word yet. British leaves out Northern Ireland.

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I'm mainland Britain, but I don't see that British automatically excludes Ulstermen. It's true many Catholic nationalist republicans use the term British disparagingly for what they see as a foreign occupying force, but obviously the Protestant unionist majority think they're British. – FumbleFingers Oct 18 '11 at 19:28
I think British certainly does exclude Ulstermen from Donegall, Cavan, and Monaghan. And, until recent times, unionists from Northern Ireland were happy to call themselves Irish. They wanted to remain part of the UK, but that didn't mean they weren't Irish. That changed in the past generation, perhaps as views became more polarised. – TRiG Oct 18 '11 at 20:24
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All I can say is both we and the rest of the world usually call our political representatives the British Government, and that government collects and spends taxes in Northern Ireland. We're all part of the same state, so far as I'm concerned, so that makes us all British first, and English/Irish/etc. second. – FumbleFingers Oct 18 '11 at 21:07
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@FumbleFingers - I think the confusion was assuming British = Great Britain which doesn't include N. Ireland/the 6 counties/Ulster/the occupied territories (delete as applicable). But as Hugo points out Britain/British = UK, not = Great Britain. – mgb Oct 18 '11 at 23:24
United Kingdom, Britain and Great Britain are all just contractions of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. People may self identify as English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish, but we are all British (not to mention also European *8'). – Mark Booth Oct 19 '11 at 12:08

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up vote 6 down vote accepted

Wikipedia gives the demonym of the UK as British or Briton.

It's also worth noting that although Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales, Britain is sometimes used as an abbreviation for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

From the Guardian style guide:

Britain, UK
These terms are synonymous: Britain is the official short form of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Used as adjectives, therefore, British and UK mean the same. Great Britain, however, refers only to England, Wales and Scotland. Take care not to write Britain when you might mean England and Wales, or just England – for example when referring to the education system.

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up vote 3 down vote

I don't think it's that uncommon to refer to all of the UK as Britain, and its inhabitants as British. Wikipedia says:

The United Kingdom is often referred to as Britain. British government sources frequently use the term as a short form for the United Kingdom, whilst media style guides generally allow its use but point out that the longer term Great Britain refers only to England, Scotland and Wales.

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While we're at it, can we remember that the 'Great' in 'Great Britain' is topgraphical term, not a political one? – Barrie England Oct 18 '11 at 20:54
@Barrie - although easier to swallow than "Great Grimsby" ! – mgb Oct 18 '11 at 23:20

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