US Map / State Abbreviations

US State Abbreviations

All 50 official two-letter postal abbreviations, in one table. These are the codes used by USPS and on virtually every form and map.

The abbreviations everyone mixes up

Eight states start with M and four with A, so a handful of codes cause most mistakes. MI is Michigan (not Mississippi — that's MS, while Missouri is MO and Montana is MT). AK is Alaska and AR is Arkansas, leaving AZ for Arizona and AL for Alabama. And despite what many people guess, NE belongs to Nebraska; Nevada takes NV.

Where the codes come from

The Postal Service standardized the two-letter codes in 1963 so that addresses would fit on one line with a ZIP code. Before that, longer traditional abbreviations like "Calif.", "Fla.", and "Mass." were common, and you'll still see those older forms in newspapers and legal documents. On modern maps — including the labeled US map here — the two-letter codes are standard, especially for the small northeastern states where full names don't fit.

Three groups, not fifty facts

Nineteen codes are simply the first two letters of the state name — CA, CO, FL, IL, IN, OH, OR, WI and the rest of that set are free points. Ten more are the initials of a two-word name: NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NY, RI, SC, SD and WV. The remaining 21 reach further into the word for their second letter, usually because an earlier state had already taken the obvious pair: AK, AZ, CT, GA, HI, IA, KS, KY, LA, MD, ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NV, PA, TN, TX, VA and VT. Learn the 21 and you have learned the list.

Postal codes versus traditional abbreviations

The two systems are not interchangeable and both are still in use. AP style and legal citation keep the older forms — Calif., Mass., Penna., Tenn., Wis. — for running text, while the two-letter codes belong in addresses, tables and on maps. Eight states have never been abbreviated at all in the traditional system because their names are already short: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. On a map the choice is settled by space rather than style, which is why the labeled US map uses full names for the large western states and codes for the crowded Northeast.

Learn them

Run the abbreviations quiz to test all 50, study the map first on the US map with states, or print a blank map and write the codes in by hand. The eight worth practising are the ones no map has room to spell out: CT, DE, MA, MD, NH, NJ, RI and VT.