Yankee Doodle
a popular air now considered one of the national tunes of the United States. It is said to have been borrowed by the Americans from England: that during the time of Cromwell the Oxford students sang derisively:
Nankee Doodle came to town
Upon a Kentish pony:
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called him Macaroni.
Upon a Kentish pony:
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called him Macaroni.
When the British troops were evacuating Boston, so one account runs, they sang this song in mockery, substituting "Yankee" for "Nankee." The Americans took up the air and have sung Yankee Doodle ever since.
Volume V · Aiton’s Encyclopedia