The German people are identified by a variety of exonyms across Europe, such as Allemands (French), tedeschi (Italian), tyskar (Swedish) and Niemcy (Polish).
Some 20 different ethnonyms were considered as potential Library of Congress headings, but it was recommended that only a fraction of them be employed for the purposes of cataloguing.
In discussing an address in 1960 by Elijah Muhammad, it was stated "to the Muslims, terms like Negro and colored are labels created by white people to negate the past greatness of the black race".
Generally, any group of people may have numerous ethnonyms, associated with the political affiliation with a state or a province, with geographical landmark, with the language, or another distinct feature.
A polito-ethnonym indicates that name originated from the political affiliation, like when the polysemic term Austrians is sometimes used more specifically for native, German speaking inhabitants of Austria, who have their own endonyms.
A topo-ethnonym refers to the ethnonym derived from a toponym (name of a geographical locality, placename), like when the polysemic term Montenegrins, which was originally used for the inhabitants of the geographical area of the Black Mountain (Montenegro), acquired an additional ethnonymic use, designating modern ethnic Montenegrins, who have their own distinct endonyms.