Louisiana's official abbreviation should be changed.

[Molandfreak]

I can't imagine how many times someone has confused the state of Louisiana with Los Angeles thanks to the official abbreviation being the exact same thing. Why does a state still share an abbreviation with the second-most-populous city in the country? Now in the days of the internet, I bet it can only get worse due to text conversations and someone forgetting to put in periods between L and A when referring to Los Angeles. I think Louisiana's official abbreviation should really be changed to LS or something to that effect...

[Zeffy]

I can't imagine how many times someone has confused the state of Louisiana with Los Angeles thanks to the official abbreviation being the exact same thing. Why does a state still share an abbreviation with the second-most-populous city in the country? Now in the days of the internet, I bet it can only get worse due to text conversations and someone forgetting to put in periods between L and A when referring to Los Angeles. I think Louisiana's official abbreviation should really be changed to LS or something to that effect...

My mind occasionally jumbles up LA XXX as Los Angeles XXX. I know, it's kind of stupid, but LA always meant Los Angeles for me. Granted, I believe the state of Louisiana came first, but I agree that it's confusing. Especially if someone says they are going to "LA" and you have to figure out if they meant Louisiana or Los Angeles.

LS would work, but LS reminds me too much of Los Santos from GTA, which ironically, is Los Angeles in GTA form. 

[Brandon]

Some of us have never been confused.  Of course, we think in terms of NOLA and things like that. 

[The Nature Boy]

 

Imagine the poor folks who get confused by Washington, DC and Washington State.

[jakeroot]

Imagine the poor folks who get confused by Washington, DC and Washington State.

It's really awesome.

Especially if someone says they are going to "LA" and you have to figure out if they meant Louisiana or Los Angeles.

I don't think it's particularly common for people to refer to Lousiana as "El-Eh". That's basically reserved for Los Angeles.

Perhaps LO? Or LU?

[hotdogPi]

Especially if someone says they are going to "LA" and you have to figure out if they meant Louisiana or Los Angeles.

I don't think it's particularly common for people to refer to Lousiana as "El-Eh". That's basically reserved for Los Angeles.

Perhaps LO? Or LU?

LA is ambiguous in writing, but not in speech.

[rlb2024]

Sorry, but no way.  Louisiana's abbreviation has been the same since long before the Postal Service came out with their standardized state abbreviations -- it was "Baton Rouge, La.", "New Orleans, La.", etc., waaaaay back when.  Probably even before there was a Los Angeles.

The only time I hear anyone refer to Louisiana as "LA" in speech is in discussing highway names.  And I've lived here for over 30 years.

Louisiana's been here over 200 years.  And you want 4.5 million residents of the Bayou State (that's more than are in Los Angeles, by the way) and hundreds of thousands of businesses to change all their documents, letterhead, legal matters, etc., because some fool can't be bothered to type a couple of periods?

[GaryV]

States have official abbreviations (from the Postal Service).  Cities do not.

[jeffandnicole]

I can't imagine how many times someone has confused the state of Louisiana with Los Angeles thanks to the official abbreviation being the exact same thing.

It probably depends on the context, but I imagine it's relatively few.

Now in the days of the internet...

Am I missing something here?  The internet has been in general usage for over 20 years now.  "Now in the days of the internet" would've been something people said in 1995.  We've gotten this far with people failing to confuse Louisiana with Los Angeles; I don't think we have to artificially create a conflict with the abbreviations.

[jeffandnicole]

Am I missing something here?  The internet has been in general usage for over 20 years now.

Why on earth should that matter? The point is still the same. The more we as a society rely on text to communicate, the more of a problem it becomes when two important places have the exact same abbreviation.


iPhone

Again, based on what problem? I'm unaware of any issues of people using LA incorrectly. Heck, the closest people come would be to use NOLA for New Orleans.  You still haven't mentioned how this has been a problem in the real world.

[roadman65]

Hey LA is not only used for Los Angeles and Louisiana, but in New Jersey its is used to abbreviate Lane.  NJDOT uses it in Woodbridge, or they have a few years back, on the US 1 overhead for Gill Lane as "Gill La" instead of "Gill Ln" like most places do.   I have seen it elsewhere including growing up in Clark Township "La" was quite common.

I really do not think we have to worry about anything.  I have come to notice that LA in speech means Los Angeles and only in writing does LA mean the State of Louisiana especially how its used in a sentence.  In verbal tongue it is used as a prefix to their state highways, such as LA 1, LA 20, etc.  Most people use the state name proper when referring to Louisiana when, at least, I have heard them talk.

If it is confusion, it is petty and I think we can adjust.   Just like New Yorkers have adjusted to having both New York City and New York State referred to as both "New York" this will be the same.  Yes having the city and state does create some confusion, but New Yorkers of both have not yet decided to change either the state or city, its just part of life for them.

[txstateends]

I guess you could have the same conversation about CA for California or Canada.  But eventually, like the OP, you figure out which one is which.

[kkt]

L.A. -> Los Angeles.
La. or LA -> Louisiana.

Problem solved.

[jakeroot]

L.A. -> Los Angeles.
La. or LA -> Louisiana.

The full stops between letters are cryptic at best.

[doorknob60]

I guess you could have the same conversation about CA for California or Canada.  But eventually, like the OP, you figure out which one is which.

Ontario, CA is the worst offender.

[KEK Inc.]

I lived in Vancouver, WA for a while.  Pretty much everything about it can be confused with something else that's more well-known*.
---
Vancouver, WA, USA - Vancouver, British Columbia, Ca.
Washington - Washington, D.C.
Portland, OR (neighboring city) - Portland, ME*
Clark County, WA - Clark County, NV (Las Vegas)
Area Code 360 encompasses most of Western Washington except for the Seattle-Tacoma area.

*exception

[kkt]

WA - Washington State, or Western Australia

Don't overabbreviate if you want to be clear

[jakeroot]

WA - Washington State, or Western Australia

If you set Garmin GPS units to Australian English, the "guide" will say, for example, "In 1 mile, slight right onto Western Australia 18" (WA-18) in a very sporting Aussie accent.

[Mr_Northside]

I guess you could have the same conversation about CA for California or Canada.  But eventually, like the OP, you figure out which one is which.

Ontario, CA is the worst offender.

Man... don't get me started on that.  My company does business with/supports a company that has warehouse locations in Ontario, California and Milton, Ontario.  And half the time they'll just call in identifying themselves as "Ontario".

[golden eagle]

What about if you're in Memphis and you tell someone you're going to Jackson? Do you always have to say Tennessee or Mississippi? Or if you're in St. Louis and you're going to Springfield? You have to distinguish the one in Illinois (which is closer) or Missouri.

[SteveG1988]

Newark NJ Newark DE

[Scott5114]

A lot of the two-letter abbreviations are a little squirrelly, but we're so used to them that we don't notice. The convention used by many states where they take the first and last letters of the state doesn't really make a whole lot of sense...were I given a blank slate and told to pick abbreviations, Louisiana would be LU, Pennsylvania would be PE (or maybe PN), Virginia would be VI (or VR if I needed to avoid conflict with the Virgin Islands) and Georgia would be GE. (ME for Maine is weird too, but every other possible second letter for Maine would conflict with at least one other state, so I can live with it.)

But we've had the same abbreviations for 50+ years now so it's not worth changing.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Pennsylvania would be PE (or maybe PN)

I can't see PN as state abbreviation, since in Spanish sounds like 'pene' which means penis .

(ME for Maine is weird too, but every other possible second letter for Maine would conflict with at least one other state, so I can live with it.)

In Italy they also use two letter abbreviations of its provinces (They have 110 of them , though I believe now they only exist on the maps). When in 1992 Crotone province was created, it turned out that any two letter combo was already in use: CR is Cremona, CO Como, CT Catania, CN Cuneo and CE Caserta. So Crotone had to go with KR instead (Which makes me to spell it Krotone).

[Anthony_JK]

When the Los Angeles metro area becomes a state, we can talk about it being confused with the state of Louisiana. Until then, LA for Louisiana and L. A. or simply noting the context and spelling out Los Angeles (or maybe, City/County of LA??), will do for most people. I don't think people will confuse my residence of Opelousas, LA with LA, CA any time soon.

[Pete from Boston]

States have official abbreviations (from the Postal Service).  Cities do not.

The Postal Service has official state abbreviations for its use.  I would be surprised if Louisiana has an "official abbreviation" outside internal government style manuals.

La. vs. L.A. is no more ambiguous to me than the abbreviation "Mass." is from the concept of mass.

However, it is a good demonstration of why the Postal Service's easy-on-the-computer's-eye two-letter abbreviations are not the best answer for all usages, even though many use them exclusively in writing.  When I last used it, the AP Style Manual, for one, eschewed this practice in favor of the more verbose styles, presumably in part for this reason.