[seaweasel]

This might be an ominous opening sentence here but, I don't mean to offend people, I'm interested on the opinions of both Americans/Canadians/etc and Scots regarding this.

There seem to be quite a few people on this forum looking into their genealogy and whether they're connected to a clan, however I'm curious about their use of "Scottish" (as well as "Irish", "English" and "Welsh") in describing themselves. For example, my fiance is Irish and I remember her getting quite riled by an American girl she was in halls with who described herself as Irish despite not having any Irish family or other connections to Ireland (except for possibly having a vaguely Irish name).

I'm also interested in my family history as I have great-grandparents from Ireland, Lithuania and Germany as well as Scotland, however when people ask where I'm from I never tell them I'm Lithuanian. I know that things get complicated for those who have parents of different nationalities for example, however even my half-Polish friend (who is proud of her Polish roots and periodically visits and works there) considers herself Scottish. Given this, I find it strange and sometimes irritating that some Americans (to be fair, other nationalities are also guilty of this) describe themselves as Scottish when their connection is far more obscure than my Lithuanian, German or Irish roots (which I don't consider to be particularly strong).

As I said, I don't mean to offend anyone here however I just wanted to get some thoughts about why some people latch on to some foreign nationalities so vehemently, sometimes with very tenuous connections.