Yankee, a native of New England. The Yankees are descended for the most part from British ancestry. The name is said to be a corruption of a name given to the early colonists by the Massachusetts Indians. During the Civil War the Confederates called the Northern soldiers Yankees, regardless of the regiments to which they belonged. Europeans extend the word to include inhabitants of the United States. Yankee Doodle, a popular air now considered one of the national tunes of the United States. It is said to have been borrowed by the Americans from England: that during the time of Cromwell the Oxford students sang derisively: Nankee Doodle came to town Upon a Kentish pony: He stuck a feather in his hat And called him Macaroni. When the British troops were evacuating Boston, so one account runs, they sang this song in mockery, substituting "Yankee" for "Nankee." The Americans took up the air and have sung Yankee Doodle ever since.