Talk:List of U.S. state and territory abbreviations

Suggestions

• I would like to have the explanation of the various code systems before the list, by moving one of the explanatory sections or by expanding the lead.
• As suggested by another person in the merge discussion, it would be nice if the columns were sortable.
• There is a hidden anchor for GPO. This is confusing.
• It seems that the USPS and the letters of the ANSI code are always the same, except for a few extraterritorial areas having one code and not the other. This could be mentioned somewhere.
• The section about ISO should have a summary of the article about the same topic.

Best regards, Bever (talk) 13:47, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Would it be possible to include a warning that using the abbreviation "Kent" for Kentucky can lead to confusion, as Kent is a county in England. This is particularly prevalent in genealogical data where people who never went more than 10 miles from their village in Kent get married in Kentucky! See my post in http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/366986/confusion-between-kentucky-and-kent-england. It would appear that some people are blindly downloading this table (or similar) to their genealogy software and getting it very wrong. --BletchleyPark (talk) 15:29, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Abbreviations vs. codes and symbols - A Suggestion

The title of this article is "List of U.S. state abbreviations" but it mixes up abbreviations, codes, and symbols without defining the differences. It does say in places there are postal codes and codes from other places, and that there are abbreviations from the AP Stylebook. But it does not tell what the differences are and where to use the different ones.

People are using UP Postal Codes in writing when they should be using abbreviations. They think they are correct and do not understand the differences. Also, it should be noted that symbols are just the letters and usually upper case; and that abbreviations always have a period at the end of the. To use an example from another talk section -- Kent. is an abbreviation for Kentucky and Kent is the name of the county or city of Kent. If the abbreviation is used properly with a period it would not be confusing and obvious that Kent. means Kentucky.

The article should be split and have one for state codes and one for abbreviations. Or, there should be an explanation of what the differences are and where the different ones are used. Hopefully, there is a way to do that without turning it into a how-to and keeping with the encyclopedia concept of wiki. Bob.A51 (talk) 02:47, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

State abbreviations discouraged by USPS?

The source (# 6) link, after careful reading, does not say anything about state abbreviations being something that should be avoided. In fact, it says that it is alright to use the abbreviation if you know it.

My overall impression is that they are saying that either the abbreviation or state name written in full is perfectly and equally acceptable.

The Wiki article is saying that the abbreviation usage is discouraged and this citation is where I assumed they got this from.

I'm hesitant to make an edit because I do not have an account, and perhaps I missed something on the website.

2604:3D08:A384:C00:3821:90FF:3C8:976D (talk) 22:55, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

The source is talking about the modern two-letter abbreviations or codes. When the article talks about the post office preferring the complete state name rather than an abbreviation, it is talking about the old abbreviations that predate the two-letter ones. Indyguy (talk) 02:01, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Looking for a template?

See the newly created {{U.S. state abbreviation}} and {{U.S. state unabbreviation}}. Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 01:26, 31 December 2020 (UTC)