This might be a dumb question, but in the fallout wiki it says that United States was divided into 13 commonwealths. Now why they call themsevles the U.S. when the states became commonwealths?

I'm trying not to sound political here, but this question has been looming around in my mind for a while.

Thoughts?

OH and heres the so called fallout wiki article on it before there are anyone who thinks I'm just lying.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/United_States

Maybe out of a sense of tradition, or they thought renaming it "the united commonwealths of america" would make the american people feel less patriotic and nationalistic.

I don't know, but I would guess that it is because maintaining 13 seats in the senate was much easier for the ancestors of the enclave. Concentrate powers in the hands of the few.

Commonwealth is used to describe a union of specific states. They are still under the federal government. The country is still United States of America.

The commonwealths were probably still composed of their respective states.

Yeah they definitely were, since individual states were often mentioned in all the games.

The commonwealths were an intermediary level of government between state and federal. States still existed.

Without going into specifics to avoid politics, there are countries today that contain the words "Democratic" and "Republic" whilst being neither, so its not unprecedented.

A great example of this is the British South Africa Police(even after UDI, the name was retained, with small changes to the emblem). With that being said, it seems entirely plausible to retain the name United States of America, regardless of the way in which the nation is divided.