Yankee Doodle (person)

There was no one person to whom this term was given. It was certainly a song popular in the United States of America before the War of Independence. It is now regarded as one of America's national tunes.

How the name Yankee Doodle came about is not clear. It is, however, generally believed to have been due to the English surgeon named Richard Shuckburgh. He seems to have introduced the term in 1775 in some verse he wrote that ridiculed soldiers in gaudy uniforms.