# Yankee Doodle a popular American song, dating from the eighteenth century. The early settlers of New York were Dutch and the Dutch name for Johnny is Janke, pronounced "Yankee" and is most likely the origin of the term Yankee. Doodle meant "simpleton" in seventeenth-century English. First sung during the Revolutionary War by the British troops to poke fun at the strange ways of the Americans (Yankees), the song was soon adopted by American troops themselves. Since then, the song has been considered an expression of American patriotism.