40 Fun Facts About US State Abbreviations

Two-letter state abbreviations arrived in 1963 to free up address-line space for which new postal feature?

ZIP Codes arrived on July 1, 1963, when most addressing machines could fit only 23 characters on the bottom line of an address. Shorter state names made room for the five new digits.

Which state swapped its postal code NB for a new one in 1969 to avoid confusion with New Brunswick?

Nebraska became NE because postal officials north of the border asked for NB to be left to their own province. It remains the only change made to a state's code since 1963.

MO is the two-letter postal code of which state, home to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis?

Missouri borders eight different states, a figure equaled only by its neighbor Tennessee. Its abbreviation has barely moved in two centuries: the Post Office's 1831 list already had Mo.

MI is the two-letter postal code of which state, made up of two peninsulas bordering four Great Lakes?

Michigan was given MI in October 1963, four months after a first Post Office list had tried MICH. Its two halves are split by the Straits of Mackinac.

AK is the two-letter postal code of which state, whose most populous city is Anchorage?

Alaska first appeared as ALSK on the Post Office's June 1963 list, then took AK that October. The more obvious AL went to Alabama.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Mississippi, the state named after the river on its western border?

MS replaced MISS, the four-letter form on the Post Office's first 1963 list. Back in 1831 the department had shortened Mississippi to Mi.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Arkansas, the Southern state whose capital is Little Rock?

AR is a cut-down ARK, the three-letter form on the Post Office's first 1963 list. Little Rock has been the seat of government there since 1821.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Connecticut, the New England state that is home to Yale University?

CT skips straight from the first letter of Connecticut to the last. The Post Office's 1831 list had the same idea with Ct., before the lists of 1874 and 1943 switched to Conn.

IA is the two-letter postal code of which Midwestern state, whose capital and largest city is Des Moines?

Iowa only needed a short form once space ran tight: the Post Office's first 1963 list still printed all four letters, IOWA, before IA arrived that October.

MD is the two-letter postal code of which state, whose most populous city is Baltimore?

Maryland has one of the longest-serving abbreviations of all: Post Office lists of 1831, 1874 and 1943 each gave the state as Md.

WI is the postal code of which state, a leading dairy producer particularly famous for its cheese?

Wisconsin had been Wis. on Post Office lists since 1874, and the first 1963 list simply capitalized it as WIS before WI won out that October.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Kansas, home to the geographic center of the lower 48 states?

KS trimmed down KANS, the Post Office's first 1963 attempt. Boats registered in Kansas carry KA instead, because the Coast Guard keeps its own list of state codes.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Tennessee, whose capital and most populous city is Nashville?

TN beat two earlier ideas for Tennessee. The Post Office's 1831 list had preferred Te., and its first 1963 list tried TENN.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Nevada, the driest US state and home to Las Vegas?

NV replaced NEV, the three letters on the Post Office's first 1963 list. Dropping the E matters, because NE sends a letter to a different state entirely.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Minnesota, the state nicknamed the Land of 10,000 Lakes?

MN replaced MINN, the form on the Post Office's first 1963 list. The nickname undersells Minnesota, which has 11,842 lakes of more than ten acres.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Delaware, the first state to ratify the US Constitution?

DE brought back an old idea: the Post Office's 1831 list had De., which the lists of 1874 and 1943 lengthened to Del.

Florida appeared as 'Fl. T.' on the Post Office's 1831 list of abbreviations; what did the T stand for?

Territory was the right label in 1831: Florida had been organized under US rule in 1822 but was not admitted to the Union as a state until 1845.

Before its two-letter codes of 1963, how did the Post Office Department prefer state names to appear on mail?

Written out in full was the department's stated preference, to avoid confusion. It had recognized common short forms since 1831, but only because the public kept using them.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Hawaii, the only US state that is an archipelago?

HI replaced HAW, the three letters on the Post Office's first 1963 list. The Coast Guard went a different way and marks boats from Hawaii with HA.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Vermont, which makes about half of America's maple syrup?

VT is one of the great survivors: Post Office lists of 1831, 1874 and 1943 all gave Vermont as Vt., so the 1963 reform only had to drop the period and capitalize the T.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Montana, the state unofficially known as Big Sky Country?

MT replaced MONT, the four letters on the Post Office's first 1963 list. The tempting MO was never available: it had stood for a different state since 1831.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony in 1620?

MA replaced MASS, the four letters on the Post Office's first 1963 list. Plymouth was only the start: Massachusetts is now the most populous state in New England.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Idaho, the northwestern state best known for its potato crop?

ID replaced IDA, the three letters on the Post Office's first 1963 list. Idaho's farms grow around a third of the potatoes harvested in the United States.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Washington state, whose most populous city is Seattle?

WA is the state; the national capital, named after the same president, uses DC. The Post Office's first 1963 list had tried WASH.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Pennsylvania, where the Declaration of Independence was signed?

PA marks the state where the Constitution was drafted too, in the same Philadelphia building, now known as Independence Hall.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Kentucky, the state that makes most of the world's bourbon whiskey?

KY has deep roots: Kentucky was already Ky. on the Post Office's 1831 list. The state turns out about 95% of the world's bourbon.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Virginia, the state that has produced eight US presidents?

VA is Virginia; VI, an easy slip, sends a letter to the US Virgin Islands instead. Four of the first five presidents were Virginians.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Wyoming, home to Grand Teton and most of Yellowstone National Park?

WY replaced WYO, the three letters on the Post Office's first 1963 list, by dropping the final O. Yellowstone lies mainly in Wyoming's northwest corner.

Which state is one of eight whose names are never abbreviated under Associated Press style?

Utah is spared, as are Ohio and Texas. Associated Press style shortens most other names to forms such as Nev. and Kan. rather than to two-letter postal codes.

The Coast Guard's two-letter state codes mostly match the postal ones, but boats from which state carry CF?

California is one of twelve places where the Coast Guard's code differs from the postal one. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia use the same two letters on both lists.

On the Post Office's 1831 list of abbreviations, 'Ia.' stood for which state, admitted to the Union in 1816?

Indiana was Ia. to the Post Office of 1831. The lists of 1874 and 1943 changed it to Ind., which left the old pair of letters free for a younger state in 1963.

Which US commonwealth in the Pacific, administered from the island of Saipan, uses the postal code MP?

Northern Mariana Islands mail carries MP, which replaced the earlier postal code CM. The Coast Guard still uses CM for boats registered there.

US military mail uses AA for the Americas, but which country there falls under the Europe code AE instead?

Canada falls under AE, which the Postal Service defines as Armed Forces Europe, the Middle East, and Canada. A third military code, AP, covers the Pacific.

The retired postal code CZ once covered which American-run area, abolished in 1979 under a treaty?

Panama Canal Zone mail carried CZ in the era of two-letter codes. The United States had controlled the land beside the waterway since 1903, and the zone was abolished on October 1, 1979.

Which two-letter US postal code covers Palau, the Pacific nation once known in English as the Pelew Islands?

PW sits beside the fifty states in the Postal Service's own table of abbreviations, even though Palau has been fully sovereign since 1994 under a Compact of Free Association.

Which Pacific Northwest state has a two-letter postal code that spells a common English conjunction?

Oregon's code, OR, replaced the three-letter ORE of the Post Office's first 1963 list. A few other state codes spell everyday words too, among them the interjection OH and the pronoun ME.

Which standards body's codes for the fifty states, such as US-TX, simply reuse the postal abbreviations?

ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, lists each state in its standard ISO 3166-2 as US- followed by the two letters of the postal abbreviation.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Georgia, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies to be founded?

GA simply capitalizes Ga., the abbreviation Georgia already had on the Post Office's 1831 list. Its capital and largest city is Atlanta.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Rhode Island, the smallest US state by area?

RI takes one initial from each word, the pattern every two-word state name follows. The Post Office was already writing R. I. on its 1831 list.

Which two-letter postal code belongs to Oklahoma, whose panhandle was once known as No Man's Land?

OK is simply the front half of OKLA, the four letters on the Post Office's first 1963 list. The 1943 list had used the same letters with a period, as Okla.