# Are there standardized city codes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 14, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956 "2008-10-14T22:07:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/21 "2008-10-15T16:00:32Z")
There’s always [this.](http://www.cafepress.com/ovalstickers/308278) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/22 "2008-10-15T19:35:29Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > There may be some countries that don’t use postal codes but I couldn’t name one and I’ll bet you’re not going to deploy equipment in one. Don’t be so confident in that. Ireland has none outside of Dublin, for instance. > [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > How far out do you need to go? > > A friend of mine had Croydon as her postal address. But what if you’re a ten minute walk from Trafalgar Square? A half hour? A forty-five minute Tube ride? The latter would take you to roughly the extremities of the London postal district. > [@slaphead](#): > > Well, there are some **city** codes as well as airport codes. LHR, LGW, STN, BQN and LCY are airports, but there’s also LON, which in many systems will associate with all those airports plus sometimes QQS (St Pancras International, for international trains) and various domestic rail terminals, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. But generally it’s an absolute dogs breakfast. BQN? Rafael Hernández Airport in Puerto Rico certainly doesn’t come under LON! (Biggin Hill is BQH 😛 ) Don’t forget SEN, either - ‘London Southend’ airport :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/23 "2008-10-15T21:16:19Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > BQN? Rafael Hernández Airport in Puerto Rico certainly doesn’t come under LON! (Biggin Hill is BQH 😛 ) Don’t forget SEN, either - ‘London Southend’ airport :dubious: H, N, they’re all the same to me :smack: And according to wiki, IATA drew the line at Luton and Stansted when they set up [LON](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LON) - Sarfend didn’t make it it (at least, not yet :eek:) ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/24 "2008-10-15T22:27:55Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Some cities have abbreviations acceptable to the US Postal Service, and some don’t. For example, Rancho Santa Margarita maybe Rancho Sta Marg, Rcho Sta Marg, or **RSM**. Los Angeles is commonly abbreviated LA, and New York City is commonly abbreviated NY or NYC. Don’ t plan on using any of these abbreviations if you buy your postage online. Neither the USPS site or postage through Paypal allow for it. In fact, some cities that have common abbreviations as part of their names, St. Louis for example, you must enter the name as Saint Louis. I did just get a small package from Hong Kong, my name, city and state are virtually unreadable. But the numbers for my address, street name and zip code are easily read. The package did get to me. An idea the OP might try is to look in the sports page of your local newpaper. In the part that lists the results, standing and statistics, abbreviations are the norm, not the exception. This might give you an idea for city abbreviations. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2008, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/25 "2008-10-16T08:46:10Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > And according to wiki, IATA drew the line at Luton and Stansted when they set up [LON](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LON) - Sarfend didn’t make it it (at least, not yet :eek:) Fair enough. Mind you, if they had a bus link to Rochford station, the train from there takes the same as the Stansted Scenic Route, also providing a useful link with Shenfield. Surely there’s potential for it to play a bigger role. Sorry, I meant ‘Stansted Express’, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2008, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/26 "2008-10-16T12:10:45Z")
To confuse the idea of using airport codes, there are two types of codes, IATA and ICAO. For example the [IATA code for Broome is BME, and the ICAO is YBRM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broome_International_Airport). I think most people tend to think of the IATA code so you’d best go with that. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/27 "2008-10-16T13:09:47Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Don’ t plan on using any of these abbreviations if you buy your postage online. Neither the USPS site or postage through Paypal allow for it. In fact, some cities that have common abbreviations as part of their names, St. Louis for example, you must enter the name as Saint Louis. I did just get a small package from Hong Kong, my name, city and state are virtually unreadable. But the numbers for Postal worker checking in: Whatever the USPS might say to you on their website is only what they’re trying to train you to do re correct addressing, but rest assured the software in the high speed sorting machines is loaded up with all sorts of weird and wonderful abbreviations and errors people use. Just as the conventional wisdom for webmasters is to include common spelling errors in their META tags, the world’s postal administrations do a similar thing. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/28 "2008-10-16T13:23:38Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > There may be some countries that don’t use postal codes but I couldn’t name one and I’ll bet you’re not going to deploy equipment in one. New Zealand has technically had postcodes for about 30 years but until I left 8 years ago no one actually used them. It seems the post office is encouraging their use now though. [http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/Personal/Postcodes/HowToUseThem/](http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/Personal/Postcodes/HowToUseThem/) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/29 "2008-10-16T13:30:54Z")
I’ve posted this before, but putting my postal employee cap on again for a moment, I can assure you that these days, postal codes are approaching their twilight. If I were setting up a new nation from scratch in 2008, I’d not bother with the things. They’ll be around for a while yet as a legacy system, but they are far from state of the art. I won’t bore you with reasons why, but I’d have money on postal administrations in twenty years (if they exist at all) not bothering with them. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2008, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/30 "2008-10-16T14:16:51Z")
What will they do instead? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/31 "2008-10-17T17:17:04Z")
Accidentally, while looking for something else, I found an international system of city codes: UN/LOCODE, the United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations. The Wikepidia article on it is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN/LOCODE](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN/LOCODE), while you can search for the codes at [http://unlocode.hmap.info/](http://unlocode.hmap.info/). It seems to be based in part on IATA codes for airports. ---
**Author:** ![Convict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Convict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Convict)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/32 "2008-10-17T19:01:28Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > I need to deploy computer equipment in several remote offices and I’d like to have abbreviations to use. Obviously since it is a private network, I can pick anything I want, but the over-orderly side of me would like to use an existing scheme if possible. I’ll probably just pick the first three letters of the city’s name (in English), but I am curious if there are any defacto standards. You can use a variation of CLLI (Common Language Location Identifier) Codes utilized by telephone companies in North America. Wiki has a good explanation of them along with examples of different codes. It shouldn’t be too hard to adapt the format to include international locations. Almost forgot–here’s the link: > **[Common Language Location Identification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLLI_code)** > > Common Language Location Identification (CLLI) is an application of Common Language Information Services in the North American telecommunications industry. It specifies the location and function of telecommunication equipment or of a relevant location such as an international border or a supporting equipment location, such as a manhole or pole. CLLI was developed in the 1960s in the Bell System, and continued use after divestiture in the North American market under management by Bellcore, lat CL... ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956/33 "2008-10-17T19:38:16Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > Well, there are some **city** codes as well as airport codes. LHR, LGW, STN, BQN and LCY are airports, but there’s also LON Here’s a list of Metro codes: > **[Metropolitan Area Airport Codes - Wikitravel](https://wikitravel.org/en/Metropolitan_Area_Airport_Codes)** > > The IATA, the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration), and various booking engines have assigned "city codes" which represent several airports serving a metropolitan area. Not every region served with multiple airports is assigned a... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-standardized-city-codes/467956.md?page=1)