Other names for the House of Representatives, Senate and President

If these names were not used for the three institutions of the United States, what other ones would be up for consideration?
 

Thande

Donor
Have a look here for some ideas. They were probably going to inevitably use "Senate" for something or other due to the US founding fathers' Enlightenment Graeco-Romano-philia, but the President and the HoR could easily have been called something else.
 
Second Chamber, First Chamber, (Lord) Protector?

Assembly, Chamber of Elders, Chairman?

Chamber of the People, Chamber of States, Praetor/Consul?

Or combine.
 

Thande

Donor
They wouldn't use Lord Protector. Consul or Tribune or something like that is plausible though.
 
In the previous threads on this in 2010/11 I think we decided on Consul (with Vice/Deputy/Sub- depending on how the exective powers are divided) as replacement for the President title.
As said Senate seems inevitable based on the GR vogue.
For a HoR replacement no one name seemed to dominate - Commons, Popular House/Chamber, Assembly, etc/
 

Thande

Donor
In the previous threads on this in 2010/11 I think we decided on Consul (with Vice/Deputy/Sub- depending on how the exective powers are divided) as replacement for the President title.
As said Senate seems inevitable based on the GR vogue.
For a HoR replacement no one name seemed to dominate - Commons, Popular House/Chamber, Assembly, etc/

I don't think they would have used Commons or anything implying "People's, as opposed to the rest of the government" both because of wanting to distance themselves from Britain and, despite the aristocratic realities of the time, claiming they were egalitarian. Though you could argue it might mean "directly elected by the people, as opposed to the Senate being elected by the state assemblies".

Other words they might have used are "Boule" (the name of the old Athenian Council of 500, the modern Greek parliament is called the Vouli, which is the same word in modern Greek) or ironically "Presidium" or "Praesidium".
 
Are there others from British (mainland or colonial) history that would be used? I believe "Chancellor" was used in British universities, for instance. What about "Steward"?
 

Thande

Donor
Are there others from British (mainland or colonial) history that would be used? I believe "Chancellor" was used in British universities, for instance. What about "Steward"?

As I said above, the Americans generally wanted to distance themselves from British terminology and the colonial ancien regime. Having said that, of course there are some British political terms that survived like "president" and "speaker". You can argue perhaps that the use of Senate may have partially been influenced by the University of Cambridge's "Council of the Senate". If so, you could use Oxford University's equivalent "Congregation" as a name for a body, too.

Steward doesn't really make sense in this context unless it's for a role equivalent to the vice-president, who takes over when the president isn't there, and it hadn't been used in England/Britain as a permanent position since 1421 anyway. Words like Lieutenant, Deputy or Steadholder might instead be used in this role.

And of course there is Secretary, which the OTL USA used extensively.
 
Steward doesn't really make sense in this context unless it's for a role equivalent to the vice-president, who takes over when the president isn't there, and it hadn't been used in England/Britain as a permanent position since 1421 anyway. Words like Lieutenant, Deputy or Steadholder might instead be used in this role.

Surely a "Steward" can be someone that has oversight and responsibility for something. I.e. similar to the original understanding of "President" as someone that "presides" over congress?
 
They wouldn't use Lord Protector. Consul or Tribune or something like that is plausible though.
That's why it was between (...). To illustrate where Protector would derive from. How did the American colonies of the time view Cromwell?

From Greek, there's also the Ekklessia. Suitable as it was the popular assembly of Athens.

Given that the leaders of the constituent states were all governors, the position of President could also just as well have become titled as Governer-General.
 
If your going for Greek titles, why not Hegemon? The title was used by the leaders of the Greek Leagues, so it could be used like the states are the Greek cities and the Hegemon was the President?
 
The President could be termed as Consul.
The Senate as the Council of States.
The House of Representatives as the House of People.
Alternate suggestion, Senate as the Federal Chamber.
The House of Representatives as the People's Chamber.
 
Of course. Chancellor was also a term that could be used for the President.
As the states had Governors, terms like Governor-in-Chief, Governor General or Supreme Governor could be used.
The Chief Administrator also could be used instead of the President.
 
Last edited:
Top