In Pennsylvania, many people including me call the state by its initials (PA) in casual conversation. I’ve also heard people refer to residents at PAers, both in print and in speech. Do any other states do this? And does anyone know why PA people do it? I’ve always just accepted it without thinking about it critically but my mom said “PA” last night and so now I’m really curious!
And obviously, I mean people in other states. States are inanimate. Silly me.
Generally, no. Pennsylvania is fairly unique in that regard. I am from Louisiana but LA is already taken. I live in Massachusetts now. People often call the state “Mass” which is a variant of the idea.
No, never.
Ohhhhhhh! Ok then, I have sometimes called the state I live in [del]disorganized[/del] MD. I have also heard others doing this, but rarely.
I’m from West Virginia, and I always remember “P.A.” as shorthand for Pennsylvania. (“P.A beer” was the higher-alcohol stuff).
FWIW, West Virginians occasionally call it “W.V.” (ca. 1985, a local band did a cover of ‘Rocky Top’, replacing the lyrics “Rocky Top, Tennessee” with “Morgantown, Dubya Vee”).
I would wag if the postal code is fewer syables then the name then it woud be used.
I know people who used to call Oklahoma “OK,” on occasion. Everybody I knew referred to Oklahoma City as “OKC.”
When I lived in California, Texas, and Colorado, I never heard the state referred to by its two-letter postal abbreviation although people did shorten the name on occasion. Well–never in Texas unless they were doing that “ass went to Washington” joke.
I’ve heard people call Vermont “VT” but it’s rare.
In the Australian context:
- I’ve frequently heard people talk about WA (instead of Western Australia);
- the Australian Capital Territory is universally referred to as “the ACT”.
I’ve heard some denizens of Massachusetts (such as the Magliozzi brothers on CarTalk) refer to their towns as “Cambridge, Ma.” They pronounced it as in “matter.” I have heard some folks in St. Louis, MO say their state as Moe. I worked with a guy from Kentucky, and everybody knew him as K-Y. His wife and kids still lived there, and he drove back every weekend.
I have never heard anyone say IN as “in.” Even the hippest hoosiers don’t think of Indiana as “in.”
I’ve mostly heard PA called that, but I’m pretty sure I’ve also heard people in Virginia say VA, although it could’ve just been me saying that. 
I’ve heard southern California called “SoCal,” and I’ve seen northern California written as NorCal, but I don’t recall anyone ever saying NorCal. We northern Californians would probably take the time to say, “northern California.”
I hear state initials almost all the time in reference to universities, at least. Nobody callls South Carolina “SC” on a regular basis, though. Sometimes we call it “South Calackalacky” to be funny.
We call ourselves Yoopers - that is, UP-ers, that is, residents of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Does that count?
Keep in mind that two-letter state abbreviations have only been around for 40 years or so, and didn’t really become popular until universal computerization of marketing databases in the 1970’s and '80’s. Before that, Pennsylvania was relatively unique in having a two-letter abbreviation.
So for Pennsylvania, you had a two-syllable abbreviation, P-A, as opposed to a four-syllable state name. A two-syllable saving! In most states, the state name was shorter, and/or the abbreviation was longer. You don’t save anything by saying M-A-S-S instead of Massachusetts. If anything you might pronounce the “mass” as in UMass.
Now that the two-letter abbreviations have become standard and well recognized, there’s no reason that people couldn’t say MA or CT or NM, but habits take a long time to become established.
Into the 60s & beyond for some older folks, the mail abbreviation for PA was “Penna.” “PA” has been verbal preceding that to my knowledge.
Washington, DC is often referred to as DC. As in ‘District of Columbia,’ whatever that means.
I think PA (or its older rendering, “Pa.”) was a common alternative, though, even before the USPS conversion. Wikipedia shows both “Pa.” and “Penna.” as “traditional” abbreviations for Pennsylvania.
Of course, those northern Virginians like to call it “NoVa.” It’s possibly even smarmier and more vomit-inducing than “SoCal”
As a native West Virginian, I grew up hearing and saying “PA” all my life. And still the only example of that I’m familiar with.
DC would count, except you limited it to states.
And it’s a good thing Kentuckians don’t use the postal abbreviation in speech…it would cause too many giggles.
Yes, but “P.A.” was in use even before the postal codes:
*They’re really rockin Boston
In Pittsburgh, P. A. *
– “Sweet Little Sixteen”, Chuck Berry, 1958
Here in BC, we call it… um… BC. Nobody says “British Columbia” unless they are forced to explain the acronym by foreigners.