America is a land of iconic images: cowboys, rappers, baseball, Apple, Coke, and of course, thinking it alone beat the Nazis. America is far more complex a story than any one facet of its iconography would suggest. It is a land of both visionary innovators and objectionable robber barons. It has championed freedom while at the same time making many of its own people second class citizens. It gave the world both Elvis Presley and Katy Perry.

Divided into many regions, the USA isn't as simple as one land with one culture. Even within a single part of the country, subcultures, sports rivalries, ethnic and class divides make America a land more diverse than really any other. If one wants 10 opinions on something, one need only ask two Americans. American popular culture, once a monoculture with nearly all people tuning in to the same television programmes, is now balkanised, with niche cable channels and internet streaming services catering to every taste. There is even, finally, enough room in American sport for football, played without the use of hands, to have a place in the landscape of professional sports. Growing up American is thus unlike growing up nearly anyplace else in the world. Were you American, what would you be named?