History Main / MistakenNationality

* ''Film/MeanGirls'': Mixed with a bit of casual racism as Mrs Norbury hears that the new student 'just moved here from Africa' and gives a warm welcome to a black student, who replies 'I'm from Michigan' in bewilderment.

* ''Fanfic/AChantofBloodandLight'': Because "sora" is an Elvhen word, the teen is suspected from having elf ancestry. When Sora admits he was adopted and that his birth father had a name most commonly seen in Tevinter, his companions conclude he's a half-breed bastard whose parents couldn't keep him by fear of discrimination. Obviously Sora knows they're completely in the wrong as he was born in another dimension entirely.

* It's not uncommon for Danes to be mistaken for Germans or Swedes abroad, since the Danish language can sound like a hybrid between German and Swedish to the uninitiated.

* It's not uncommon for Danes to be mistaken for Germans or Swedes abroad, since the Danish language can sound like a hybrid between German and Swedish to the uninitiated.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} once went to Japan to deliver a ransom for a friend's son. The gangsters who greeted him were surprised; they hadn't expected an American. Wolvie callously states that he's ''Canadian'', bub. The lead gangster laughs, saying that it doesn't make any difference (and hinting that he might not ''know'' the difference). This is almost a [[RunningJoke Running Joke,]] since readers forget that he's Canadian due to how much time he spends with the X-Men.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Mingamanga}}'': On Korbinian's first day in school, the teacher mistakes him not only for a girl, but a Pole. Reasons: His last name Panikowski (because of a great-grandfather who was a soldier from Prussia who stayed in Bavaria), his thick dialect which renders his home village Kleinbierbach to "Kloabirboch", which is mistaken for "Globirbow", which sounds Polish indeed.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Great Crossing'', Obelix and Asterix mistake Native Americans for Cretians and then Iberians. The Viking crew that picks them up also mistake the Gauls for Natives.
* When the ComicBook/{{Runaways}} got stuck in New York City circa 1907, leader Nico Minoru was repeatedly called a "Chink" or an "Oriental" by various locals. When their host, the Swell, calls her a "Chinee", she's annoyed enough to correct him by stating that she is "from Japan, by way of Glendale" -- which is to say that she considers herself every bit as American as the Swell. This, of course, does not stop her from being rounded up by the bigots of the Upward Path.
* Meta-Example: Most readers assume Bishop from ''Franchise/XMen'' is African-American, when he is actually an Australian Aborigine. On one hand, this wasn't revealed until ten years after the character was introduced. On the other hand, even in the beginning his features never were ''quite'' right for someone of African descent.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWomanTempestTossed'': Raissa knows Ayen is Sudaneese, but mistakes her ethnicity and language because Ayen is still learning English and doesn't speak it much. She is surprised to learn Ayen is Dinka, but a lot of that surprise comes from Diana knowing how to speak Dinka.

* In ''Film/AdventureInSahara'', Captain Savatt survives his trek through the ThirstyDesert and arrives at Legion HQ with a ragged beard, wearing Bedouin robes and covered in dust. He is taken to be a mad old Arab and they attempt to drive him away. It is only when he makes it into his commanding officer's office that he is able to establish his true identity.

** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'': "I'm from Fresno, Ace."
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'': Turns out Dr. Arnim Zola is actually Swiss.
* In the reboot of ''Film/TheKarateKid'', Dre is ordered by his mother to practice his Chinese while on a plane. So he turns to a Chinese guy sitting near him and says something, only for the guy to respond, "Dude, I'm from Detroit."

* ''Film/VetHard'': This Dutch / (Flemish-)Belgian movie[[note]]The main characters, being Dutch vs. Flemish, are also SeparatedByACommonLanguage, which is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] - but that's another issue.[[/note]] features a character who's referred to as "Yugoslavian" - except that the movie came out in 2005, the mobile phones shown within the movie make it clear it ''takes place'' around 2005, and Yugoslavia hasn't existed as a country since the early '90s. The character's [[UnfortunateNames unfortunate name]] is Vuk, which in the movie by the other characters is used to abuse him as a ButtMonkey as they consistently call him Fuck (which in the Netherlands is the same swear-word as in English). Vuk is an actual Serbian name''[[note]]meaning "Wolf", no less[[/note]]'', so the character most probably is actually Serbian.

* Occurs repeatedly in the movie ''Film/{{Crash}}''.

* Brilliantly used in ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner'' because "nobody suspects Japanese tourists".

* Spanish speaking people are often confused with one another due to the fact that there are 20 different countries (as well as Puerto Rico, a US territory) where Spanish is the primary/official language. This confusion is especially prevalent in the USA due to the large number of Hispanic immigrants, who all come from a multitude of countries in Latin America.

* Similar to the InterchangeableAsianCultures trope, a lot of Americans seem to think that any Hispanic people are "Mexican".

** In the episode where the Souphanousinphone family is introduced, the page quote exchange takes place. Amusingly, Hank's irritable and somewhat bigoted father knows immediately Kahn is Laotian, possibly from being a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII vet. Even more amusing is that "next to Vietnam" doesn't ring a bell, given Hank's age.

* While Phoebe Heyerdahl on ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' is indeed at least twenty-five percent Japanese, her principal believes she is a foreign exchange student form the far off land "Ken Ta Kay". She said she was born in Kentucky.

** Just before storming a fort, Edward asks his quartermaster Adéwalé, a former slave, if he'll return to Africa and live like a king with his share of the gold they'll take. Adéwalé then explains that he was born in Trinidad. When Edward asks if he'd feel more at home in Africa, Adéwalé asks if Edward would feel at home in Paris.

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017''. When preparing Scrooge for a TV interview to help buffer his failing reputation, Mrs. Beakley agrees to give him an easy practice question. "Mr. [=McDuck=], I love your accent. What part of ''[[Scotireland Ireland]]'' are you from?" Scrooge barely stops himself from going into a rage. Of course, the interviewer asks that exact same question, and Scrooge still hasn't gotten his temper under control.

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017''. When preparing Scrooge for a TV interview to help buffer his failing reputation, Mrs. Beakley agrees to give him an easy practice question. "Mr. [=McDuck=], I love your accent. What part of ''Ireland'' are you from?" Scrooge barely stops himself from going into a rage. Of course, the interviewer asks that exact same question, and Scrooge still hasn't gotten his temper under control.

* ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' is commonly assumed to be French by people who do not know that more than one francophone country exists. Especially ironic since Frenchmen and Belgians tend to disparage each other.
* In the ''Literature/CHERUBSeries'', the training instructor Yosyp Kazakov is [[BerserkButton Ukrainian. ''Not'' Russian.]] Call him a Russian, and he will not be happy.
* Edilio Escobar from Michael Grant's ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' series is from Honduras, but is often referred to by the ignorant townsfolk of Perdido Beach as "The Mexican one", much to his chargin.
* ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' (by Creator/CharlesStross): In ''The Atrocity Archive'', Bob believes his co-worker Boris to be a Russian spy. In ''The Fuller Memorandum'', Bob corrects his mistake by revealing that Boris is a native British subject who suffers from Foreign Accent Syndrome [[GoMadFromTheRevelation induced by close encounters]] with {{eldritch abomination}}s.

* In the western novels of Creator/JTEdson, General Hardin's valet Tommy Okasi is Japanese. Almost everyone assumes that he is Chinese. {{Justified|Trope}} as the Chinese were the only Asians most people in TheWildWest had ever encountered.
* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]'', Lizbeth Salander's boss, Dragan Armansky, is stated as having been born in Croatia to an Armenian Jewish father from Belarus and a Bosnian Muslim mother of Greek extraction. Because of his mother, he is considered Muslim, but the Swedish immigration authorities supposedly list him as a Serb ([[SarcasmMode an ethnicity that is, of course, famous for being associated with Muslims.]]) And apparently, despite having no Arab ancestry, there are still people who call him "the Arab".
* A running gag in ''Literature/TheAffix'': Matt keeps forgetting Henry Bartlett is from New Zealand, not Australia, over and over. Mostly it's because he made a joke earlier that the next villain to pop out of the woodwork would be "Crikey the Australian" and the idea of it got stuck in his head. It probably doesn't help that Matt undergoes serious SanitySlippage throughout the book.

--> '''Suede:''' "I ''know'' you know I'm Australian."[[note]]That was the reason for their last crossover, so Suede could provide some local background for "Come on, Irene."[[/note]]

** Although ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'' reveals Nemo is actually [[spoiler:an Indian]] fighting the British in revenge for the death of his family, he appears Caucasian in the original illustrations because Verne first planned to make him Polish and fighting against the Russian oppressor. As France was an ally of Russia at the time, his editor had him pick a different origin. The search for an expansionist power that would be an AcceptableTarget to the French presumably did not take long.