Anything and everything

SO I WENT DOWN A RABBIT HOLE (unsurprising if you know me) about why americans (and ONLY americans) call canned tuna "tuna fish". If you look at Wikipedia's page for tuna, it'll tell you that it's because the german for tuna sounds like tuna fish. That doesn't make sense, given people in wildly different regions (for example, Connecticut and Louisiana) were calling it tuna fish in the 70s, and why ONLY americans call it tuna fish. It had to be something other than that.

So began my search. In my research, I found that tuna only started being sold to americans in cans in 1908, further strengthening my thought that it couldn't just be because german. After about an hour of fruitless searching, I realized if it's only americans, it had to be something that wouldn't have escaped much past the bounds of america. Advertising in american magazines. I somehow managed to land on an etsy listing for an ad for White Star tuna FISH from the 1930s, and off I went.

The earliest written evidence I could find (not a professional researcher or historian at all) of the use of the phrase "tuna fish" was in a 1919 court case regarding labels between the Southern California Fish Co. and White Star Canning Co., which describes the White Star label as saying "tuna fish" on it. I then found other (White Star) ads (and a can label) from the 20s, 30s, and 50s (I can't find the one from the 50s but I swear I saw one), and then an ad for Bumblebee tuna from the 70s that says "tunafish" on it. So there we go. Advertising in american magazines. I don't know why White Star decided to include the fish, but it seems like they're the reason we do.

(It's a little hard to find much useful information on the White Star Canning Co, both because White Star is the name of the ship company that had the Titanic (so you gotta include the canning part and that might be limiting out some relevant stuff) and also because the White Star Canning Co was merged in 1922 with the company that became Chicken of the Sea)

Sources:

https://iiab.me/kiwix/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2022-05/A/Albert_P._Halfhill

https://casetext.com/case/so-cal-f-co-v-white-star-c-co

https://www.palosverdespulse.com/blog/2021/6/25/it-tastes-like-chicken-how-local-canneries-marketed-fish-in-a-can-by-marifrances-trivelli-director-los-angeles-maritime-museum

https://www.etsy.com/listing/608947310/retro-printable-tuna-advertising-from-a

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186146432914

https://www.ebay.com/itm/143760191768

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Van_Camp