# School abbreviations **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403 "2005-12-20T03:29:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![copperwindow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/1 "2005-12-20T03:29:43Z")
What does UVM stand for? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/2 "2005-12-20T03:33:53Z")
[University of Vermont?](http://www.uvm.edu/) ---
**Author:** ![copperwindow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/3 "2005-12-20T03:55:13Z")
Well, I live in Vermont. I see bumper stickers all over that simply say “VT”. The state abbrviation is VT. Shouldn’t University of Vermont be abbrivaited as UVT? Where does the “M” come from? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/4 "2005-12-20T04:00:00Z")
> [@copperwindow](#): > > Well, I live in Vermont. I see bumper stickers all over that simply say “VT”. The state abbrviation is VT. Shouldn’t University of Vermont be abbrivaited as UVT? > Where does the “M” come from? From the the linked website: > [@](#): > > Called UVM for Universitas Viridis Montis, Latin for “University of the Green Mountains” ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/5 "2005-12-20T04:00:01Z")
“Called UVM for Universitas Viridis Montis, Latin for “University of the Green Mountains”” From here: [http://www.uvm.edu/about\_uvm/?Page=facts.html](http://www.uvm.edu/about_uvm/?Page=facts.html) ---
**Author:** ![copperwindow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/6 "2005-12-20T04:04:02Z")
I’ve never heard anyone say they are a student at Universitas Viridis Montis. If UVM stands for Universitas Viridis Montis, then there should be no such school known as University of Vermont. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/7 "2005-12-20T04:11:22Z")
That’s just plain silly. The school is University of Vermont. The abbreviation of the school comes from the latin (which I’m willing to bet it on the school seal). Why is that a problem? ---
**Author:** ![SleepyDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@SleepyDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SleepyDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/8 "2005-12-20T08:40:05Z")
[Universidad del Valle de Mexico](http://www.uvmnet.edu/)? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/9 "2005-12-20T17:01:37Z")
> [@copperwindow](#): > > I’ve never heard anyone say they are a student at Universitas Viridis Montis. If UVM stands for Universitas Viridis Montis, then there should be no such school known as University of Vermont. The abbreviation is derived from the Latin translation of the name. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/10 "2005-12-20T17:59:52Z")
It may also be due to VT being perhaps more widely known as Virginia Tech. Since the OP indicated “schools” and not just UVM, can anybody help clear up why the University of Miami (Florida) is known as just “The U” and even has its logo on its helmets as a split “U”? I seem to recall something about hurricane warning flags of those colors, but have yet to find anything definitive about “the U.” ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/11 "2005-12-21T23:47:59Z")
> [@copperwindow](#): > > I’ve never heard anyone say they are a student at Universitas Viridis Montis. If UVM stands for Universitas Viridis Montis, then there should be no such school known as University of Vermont. Why does anyone do anything? The University of Denver calls itself DU. I can’t imagine that the confusion with the University of Dayton or the University of Delaware is that big of a problem. Those crazy college administrators… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/12 "2005-12-22T00:13:46Z")
> [@E-Diddy](#): > > Why does anyone do anything? The University of Denver calls itself DU. I can’t imagine that the confusion with the University of Dayton or the University of Delaware is that big of a problem. Those crazy college administrators… I could have sworn I once started a thread about why certain universities reverse their acronym: University of Colorado as CU, Nebraska as NU, Oklahoma as OU, Missouri as MU, Kansas as KU. But I can’t find it. Possibly lost in the Winter of Our Missed Content. Anyway, the answer was that back in the Big-8 days (70s), the league had some kind of marketing campaign that worked better if all the acronyms ended with a U, so they switched them around. I think someone answered why Denver (which was not in the Big 8) had switched its acronym, but I forget why that was. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-abbreviations/336403/13 "2005-12-22T00:38:52Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I could have sworn I once started a thread about why certain universities reverse their acronym: University of Colorado as CU, Nebraska as NU, Oklahoma as OU, Missouri as MU, Kansas as KU. But I can’t find it. Possibly lost in the Winter of Our Missed Content. The funny thing is the University of Nebraska system is “NU”. However individual campuses like University of Nebraska-Lincoln is UNL, Omaha is UNO, and Kearney is UNK. I also always wondered about the split “U” in Miami’s helmets.