Abbreviations and codes for the states and possessions of the United States are used for postal addresses, data processing, general abbreviations and other purposes.

[edit] History

As early as October 1874, the United States Post Office recognized common abbreviations for states and territories. However, abbreviations were only accepted because of their popularity; the Post Office preferred all names spelled out in full to avoid confusion.^[1]

The traditional abbreviations for U.S. states and territories, widely used in mailing addresses prior to the introduction of two-letter U.S. postal abbreviations, are still commonly used for other purposes (such as legal citation), and are still recognized (though discouraged) by the Postal Service.^[2]

The modern two-letter abbreviated codes for the states and territories originated during the Post Office's switch to ZIP codes in 1963. The purpose was to make room for the ZIP codes in the address, rather than to standardize state abbreviations per se.^[1]

Since 1963, only one state abbreviation has been changed. Originally Nebraska was shortened to "NB", but this was changed to "NE" to avoid conflict with New Brunswick in Canada.^[1]

Prior to 1987, when the U.S. Secretary of Commerce approved the two-letter codes for use in government documents, ^[3] the United States Government Printing Office (GPO) suggested their own set of abbreviations, with some states being left unabbreviated. Today, the GPO supports United States Postal Service standard.^[4]

[edit] List

[edit] Current use of traditional abbreviations

The Associated Press Stylebook, the usage guide for most United States newspapers, counsels the use of abbreviations for most state names, when appended to a city name (for example, "Miami, Fla."). AP suggests spelling out "Alaska," "Hawaii," and all state names with five or fewer letters; and, unlike the old GPO recommendations, AP suggests spelling out the names of all non-state territories, with the exception of the District of Columbia (D.C.). Legal citation manuals, such as the Bluebook and ALWD Citation Manual, typically use these "traditional abbreviations" as well.

[edit] Postal abbreviations

The United States Postal Service has established a set of abbreviations to help process mail with optical character recognition and other automated equipment.^[5] There are also official USPS abbreviations for other parts of the address, such as street designators (street, avenue, road, etc.).

These postal abbreviations are distinguished from traditional abbreviations such as Calif., Fla., or Tex. The Associated Press Stylebook states that in contexts other than mailing addresses, the traditional state abbreviations should be used.^[6] However, the Chicago Manual of Style now recommends use of the two-letter abbreviations, with the traditional forms as an option.^[7] The two-letter abbreviations are widely used with both letters uppercase. But in some contexts and more frequently in some locations the second letter is lowercase (when the state name is one word).^{[citation needed]}

The postal abbreviation is same as ISO 3166-2 subdivision code for all fifty states.

These codes do not overlap with the thirteen Canadian subnational postal abbreviations.

[edit] Other abbreviations and codes

The Federal Information Processing Standard establishes numeric and alphabetic state codes for each state and for many outlying areas. The FIPS numeric code is marked 'FIPS' on the table above. The FIPS alphabetic state code is the same as the USPS code except for U.S. Minor Outlying Islands which have a FIPS code (UM) but no USPS code, and the U.S. Military Mail locations which have USPS codes (AA, AE, AP) but no FIPS code.

The U.S. Coast Guard uses a set of 2-letter prefixes for vessel numbers^[8], which are marked (USCG) on the table above but are not shown for the 39 states and District of Columbia where it is the same as the USPS abbreviation. USCG prefixes have also been established for five outlying territories, all of which are listed above, though it is only different from the USPS code for the Mariana islands.

[edit] See also

• Canadian subnational postal abbreviations, a similar abbreviation system in Canada

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} USPS History: State Abbreviations [1] Accessed April 21, 2009.
2. ^ USPS Postal News, "It’s Okay to Say 'I Don’t Know,' So Long As You Find Out!", January 9, 2009 [2]
3. ^ Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 5-2, May 28, 1987 [3] Accessed April 21, 2009.
4. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, 30th Edition [4] Accessed April 21, 2009.
5. ^ United States Postal Service Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards. Accessed February 4, 2007.
6. ^ State Abbreviations
7. ^ Major Rule Changes in The Chicago Manual of Style, Fifteenth Edition Accessed May 23, 2009
8. ^ 33 C.F.R. Pt. 173, App. A

[edit] External links

• The Riverside Publishing Company. (1984). Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary. ISBN 0-395-33957-X
• Chicago Manual of Style and AP Style Manual state abbreviations
• FIPS State Codes of the US and Outlying Areas
• search on WN
• Official addressing instructions and abbreviations from the USPS (including abbreviations for street addresses)

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