Did you know that most states used to have abbreviations that were often a few letters long before the standardized, two-letter postal code abbreviations we use today?
Even as early as 1831, many states were using an abbreviation. Here is a list of the stats during the time along with their abbreviations (the T after a state’s abbreviation indicates a territory):
| State | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Alabama | Al. |
| Arkansas | Ar. T. |
| Connecticut | Ct. |
| Delaware | De. |
| Florida | Fl. T. |
| Georgia | Ga. |
| Illinois | Il. |
| Indiana | Ia. |
| Kentucky | Ky. |
| Louisiana | La. |
| Maine | Me. |
| Maryland | Md. |
| Massachusetts | Ms. |
| Michigan | Mic. T. |
| Mississippi | Mi. |
| Missouri | Mo. |
| New Hampshire | N. H. |
| New Jersey | N. J. |
| New York | N. Y. |
| North Carolina | N. C. |
| Ohio | O. |
| Pennsylvania | Pa. |
| Rhode Island | R. I. |
| South Carolina | S. C. |
| Tennessee | Te. |
| Vermont | Vt. |
| Virginia | Va. |
Notice how Massachusetts’ abbreviation was Ms., which is the current abbreviation for Mississippi, and Mississippi’s abbreviation was Mi., which is the current abbreviation for Michigan.
I used to assume that the states’ two-letter abbreviations existed as soon as each state was admitted, however, it turns out that the two-letter abbreviations are called postal codes because they were created by the United States Postal Service out of necessity.
Before 1963, most states had an abbreviation that was commonly used to refer to the state, most of which were greater than 2 letters in length.
The following is a list of the states and their abbreviations from 1943:
| State | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Alabama | Ala. |
| Alaska | Alaska |
| Arizona | Ariz. |
| Arkansas | Ark. |
| California | Calif. |
| Colorado | Colo. |
| Connecticut | Conn. |
| Delaware | Del. |
| Florida | Fla. |
| Georgia | Ga. |
| Hawaii | Hawaii |
| Idaho | Idaho |
| Illinois | Ill. |
| Indiana | Ind. |
| Iowa | Iowa |
| Kansas | Kans. |
| Kentucky | Ky. |
| Louisiana | La. |
| Maine | Maine |
| Maryland | Md. |
| Massachusetts | Mass. |
| Michigan | Mich. |
| Minnesota | Minn. |
| Mississippi | Miss. |
| Missouri | Mo. |
| Montana | Mont. |
| Nebraska | Nebr. |
| Nevada | Nev. |
| New Hampshire | N. H. |
| New Jersey | N. J. |
| New Mexico | N. Mex. |
| New York | N. Y. |
| North Carolina | N. C. |
| North Dakota | N. Dak. |
| Ohio | Ohio |
| Oklahoma | Okla. |
| Oregon | Oreg. |
| Pennsylvania | Pa. |
| Rhode Island | R. I. |
| South Carolina | S. C. |
| South Dakota | S. Dak. |
| Tennessee | Tenn. |
| Texas | Tex. |
| Utah | Utah |
| Vermont | Vt. |
| Virginia | Va. |
| Washington | Wash. |
| West Virginia | W. Va. |
| Wisconsin | Wis. |
| Wyoming | Wyo. |
Once the Postal Service began using their new, five-digit Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) codes, most state abbreviations in combination with the ZIP codes were too long for the addressing equipment that was used during the time, which could only accommodate 23 characters.
In order to solve this issue, the Postal Service compiled a list of state abbreviations, however, these abbreviations were still a few characters long:
| State | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Alabama | ALA |
| Alaska | ALSK |
| Arizona | ARIZ |
| Arkansas | ARK |
| California | CALIF |
| Colorado | COL |
| Connecticut | CONN |
| Delaware | DEL |
| Florida | FLA |
| Georgia | GA |
| Hawaii | HAW |
| Idaho | IDA |
| Illinois | ILL |
| Indiana | IND |
| Iowa | IOWA |
| Kansas | KANS |
| Kentucky | KY |
| Louisiana | LA |
| Maine | ME |
| Maryland | MD |
| Massachusetts | MASS |
| Michigan | MICH |
| Minnesota | MINN |
| Mississippi | MISS |
| Missouri | MO |
| Montana | MONT |
| Nebraska | NEB |
| Nevada | NEV |
| New Hampshire | NH |
| New Jersey | NJ |
| New Mexico | NM |
| New York | NY |
| North Carolina | NC |
| North Dakota | ND |
| Ohio | OHIO |
| Oklahoma | OKLA |
| Oregon | ORE |
| Pennsylvania | PA |
| Rhode Island | RI |
| South Carolina | SC |
| South Dakota | SD |
| Tennessee | TENN |
| Texas | TEX |
| Utah | UTAH |
| Vermont | VT |
| Virginia | VA |
| Washington | WASH |
| West Virginia | W VA |
| Wisconsin | WIS |
| Wyoming | WYO |
Those abbreviations were still too long for most addressing equipment, therefore, the Postal Service finally revised the list of state abbreviations in October of 1963, giving each state their two-letter abbreviation that we still use today:
| State | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Alabama | AL |
| Alaska | AK |
| Arizona | AZ |
| Arkansas | AR |
| California | CA |
| Colorado | CO |
| Connecticut | CT |
| Delaware | DE |
| Florida | FL |
| Georgia | GA |
| Hawaii | HI |
| Idaho | ID |
| Illinois | IL |
| Indiana | IN |
| Iowa | IA |
| Kansas | KS |
| Kentucky | KY |
| Louisiana | LA |
| Maine | ME |
| Maryland | MD |
| Massachusetts | MA |
| Michigan | MI |
| Minnesota | MN |
| Mississippi | MS |
| Missouri | MO |
| Montana | MT |
| Nebraska | NB |
| Nevada | NV |
| New Hampshire | NH |
| New Jersey | NJ |
| New Mexico | NM |
| New York | NY |
| North Carolina | NC |
| North Dakota | ND |
| Ohio | OH |
| Oklahoma | OK |
| Oregon | OR |
| Pennsylvania | PA |
| Rhode Island | RI |
| South Carolina | SC |
| South Dakota | SD |
| Tennessee | TN |
| Texas | TX |
| Utah | UT |
| Vermont | VT |
| Virginia | VA |
| Washington | WA |
| West Virginia | WV |
| Wisconsin | WI |
| Wyoming | WY |
The only abbreviation that has changed since then is Nebraska’s, which was changed from NB to NE in 1969 after a request from the Canadian postal administration, which stated that the abbreviation of NB for Nebraska would be confused with the abbreviation of NB for New Brunswick.
What do you think about the state abbreviations?
Onward American 