US Map / US Map Quiz / Abbreviations Quiz

State Abbreviations Quiz

Each question shows a two-letter postal code; pick the state it belongs to. All 50 codes, one round.

The M block, and the other codes people miss

Only 19 of the 50 codes are simply the first two letters of the state name, so the quiz turns on the other 31. The M states are the classic trap — eight of them, and only Massachusetts (MA) and Michigan (MI) get the first two letters of their name. Maine is ME, Maryland MD, Minnesota MN, Mississippi MS, Missouri MO and Montana MT. The other frequent misses are AL for Alabama against AK for Alaska, AR for Arkansas against AZ for Arizona, and the four-way MI/MN/MS/MO cluster.

How the two-letter system came about

The Post Office introduced the current two-letter codes in October 1963, a few months after the ZIP code, because the older abbreviations (Calif., Mass., Penna., Tenn.) no longer fit on a line that now had to end in five digits. Every state got exactly two letters, all capitals, no periods. That is why they look nothing like the traditional forms still used in some style guides, and why the states with names that start alike had to be given codes rather than have them derived.

Codes that are not the first two letters

Twenty-one codes reach further into the name for their second letter: AK, AZ, CT, GA, HI, IA, KS, KY, LA, MD, ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NV, PA, TN, TX, VA and VT. Ten more are the initials of a two-word name — NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NY, RI, SC, SD and WV — which is why the five compass-prefixed states never collide with each other or with Nevada and New York. The remaining 19 are the plain first-two-letters cases, so the whole quiz comes down to about 30 facts worth memorising.

The full abbreviations table puts all 50 states beside their codes in one column pair, which is the fastest way to drill the M block — read it down the page and the eight M states appear together. If you would rather test position than spelling, the click-the-state quiz uses the same deck on the map, and the map with capitals covers the third thing every state has a short answer for.

Keep practising

Every deck on the site scores as you answer and reshuffles on reload. There is the full 50-state map quiz for all 50 in one round; the capitals quiz for multiple choice on every state capital; the easiest-states deck for fifteen outlines you can spot on sight; the hardest-states deck for the twenty that decide your score; and one region at a time — Northeast, Midwest, South, West.