I know my stepmother used to call them bulkies, in Maine, but I remember even then thinking that was not the only word for them. Perhaps the geographical dividing line is in Connecticut.

I knew them as bulkies in Maine, but never knew of anything else to call them. However, if the had sesame seeds or onion, they were called "sesame rolls" or "onion rolls".

Of course in Maine, we called subs "italians", so we're definitely weird.

Kaiser roll or onion roll (am I wrong in thinking kaiser rolls have onions bits sprinkled on top?) are the only terms I know for them. I think I've usually ordered sandwiches "on a roll" without specifying what type of roll. Sometimes on a French roll, but that's something different.

I have German ancestry but a non-German last name.

I was stunned when I learned that German is the largest ancestry group in the US

Wow - I didn't know that. So, I can say that I'm part of the largest minority. Cool.

(Having a German last name is fun sometimes - you can always tell when a telemarketer is calling because they can never pronounce it - I know when to hang up when they say, "Hi, is Miss, um, uh...".)

Frosted flakes:

I think I've usually ordered sandwiches "on a roll" without specifying what type of roll.

I did this too.

There's a table in this census pdf that lays it out: [link]

German is 15.2%, Irish 10.8%, African American 8.8% etc. And they point out that in 1990, German was 23% -- all the big European ancestries are going down as a percent of the population.

I was stunned when I learned that German is the largest ancestry group in the US -- I was the only kid I knew growing up with a German last name.

Yeah, me too. I thought there must be a much bigger core of Anglo/Wasp, or even Irish.

There's a table in this census pdf that lays it out: [link]

There's a category for "American" ancestry (not American Indian) - what's that supposed to mean?

In Maine I've known them as bulkies, in Western NY as kummelweck (aka, kimmelweck, weck or wick) and every place else I've lived as kaiser.

eta: to be clear, to really count as weck, it needs caraway seeds and salt, but you could get plain ones, and these would be kaiser rolls

You can answer what you want to the ancestry question. Some people just say American, for whatever reason. I mean, my memere will make the argument that her family has been on this continent for 400 years, so why aren't they just "American," but then why do I still call her memere?

There's a category for "American" ancestry (not American Indian) - what's that supposed to mean?

I'd guess that's for people who don't want to describe themselves by ethnic ancestry, and instead just call themselves "American".