Consider that (as has been already noted) that in the Southern States (most strongly in small towns) “Yankee” refers to coming from the Northern States is a mild insult denoting a variety of inclinations that would not make your “Mama” proud. But in the North Eastern states “Yankee” refers to natives of the small “New England” states and is a mild affirmation that suggests thrift, hard work, and a taciturn implacable nature.

Among Americans, only members of a particular New York baseball team refer to themselves as Yankees.

Incidentally, Ladybird, the term “Yankee” goes back to the days of New York’s founding by the Dutch. “Jan Kees” was a term for a farmer, a rural “hayseed” or “hick” (both derogatory terms) and was a term of British Soldiers for the American forces (just as the US soldiers refer to the terrorists in Iraq as “Haji”).

This varies New Yorkers are considered the most “direct” people in America. “Directness” depreciates in all directions from NY at roughly the same rate as the force of gravity. Other Americans call NYers “rude”. Southerners and near-Westerners say the same of “Yankees” (people from states that fought with the North in Civil War).

A European said “NY is the most important city in the world. But it is not the most important city in its own country.”