Why is first ‘ground’ and second ‘first’?
Here in the U.S. there are no standardized floor numbering systems that I know of.
In most big buildings I’ve been in the “G” or “ground” floor is either a large reception type floor with large spacious rooms, or a floor that is partially subterranean, the next floor is usually the first.
I’ve also been in large buildings where the ground floor was called the 1st floor.
AFAICT, that’s something of a Britticism. The only time I’ve seen that in the States is when a building’s main entry from the front is a floor above what it is from the back, in which case the floor into which the rear entry debouches is called the ground floor and the floor into which the front entry debouches is the first floor. Other than that, though, any building in the U.S. has the street-level storey deemed the first floor.
Most buildings I’ve been in here in the US don’t have a “first floor”. They have a Ground Floor (G) or Lobby (L) and the next floor is the Second Floor (2).
Funnily enough my building of work is exactly as you describe. Maybe I’ve got it wrong. But not definately. I still believe it is custom to call the second floor ‘First Floor’ at leat in Britain.
Maybe some UK dopers can back up or destroy that belief.
There’s no iron-clad consistency. In the US, “First floor” is used for the floor the main entrance, but that can also be called “Ground floor” or “Lobby.” Whatever the name, the next floor up is usually the second floor.
In Europe and the UK, the first floor was traditionally one flight up from the ground floor. It’s possible that newer buildings have switched to the US model.
No, what we call the first floor is quite definitely the first floor; let me check again… yes… it’s the first floor; if it was the second floor, we’d call it that.
Flippancy aside, UK terminology is that the floor that is level with the ground is called the ground floor; the next one up is called the first floor. I’d WAG that this is a throwback to the days when most buildings only had a ground floor (and it would have been actual ground in there too - beaten earth in many cases) - the ‘first floor’ would then be the ‘first constructed floor’.
But I’m not a historian, so take that with a pinch of salt. It remains true though that the first floor in the UK is at the top of the first flight of stairs and this differs from elsewhere in the world.
It isn’t only British, it’s European, or, at least, German. The street level floor is usually called the “parterre” or “Erdgeschoss” (“ground level”), while the next floor up is called the first floor.
Somewhat unusually for the U.S., the first floor of my apartment building is one level up from the ground, where the lobby and garages are.
That reminds me. There’s a newly built building in Douglas (Isle of Man Capital) which is made to look like the traditional sea-front buildings. But the first visible ‘level’ is the garage. As a result you get a view through traditional windows of a concrete-walled, stale, over-lit garage. It was a mistake for sure.
The Japanese follow the American system, I used to get so confused (in NZ we follow the British system).
There is usually nothing on the ground level but the lobby and maybe restrooms. Therefore, suites numbered 100-199 are on the next floor up (the first floor). Suites 200-299 would be on the next level up from that (the second floor), and so on. If the ground level were designated as the first floor, you’d have lots of confused people who wouldn’t be able to figure out that they have to go up to the 15th floor to find suite 1420.
Here in Australia it’s generally the ground floor, or sometimes the lobby (G or L respectively in the lift). Then first, second, third floors etc.
Actually, it would be even more confusing, since most U.S. buildings don’t have a 13th floor.
It might help to look at it in French: “premier étage”. Conveys a different sense than “floor.”
That doesn’t help at all.
But as long as we are speaking French, they follow the European system. You walk in on the “rez-de-chausee”, and the next floor up is the “first floor”.
That’s deffinatly not they way it’s done in any building I’ve ever worked, or visited.
First floor and ground floor are synonymous and have the 100(0)-199(9) numbers if any. The next level above is the 2nd floor and has 200(0)-299(9). If there is a basement the romms are usually designated by A10, b10, or 10, ie. a prefix or one less digit than the rest of the building. Often there is a full length and width double height lobby, so the second floor doesn’t exist except for a landing on the staircase, so the first office level might start at 3rd floor and numbers 300-399
I’m going with Mangetout’s theory on this one.
I’m an American, where First floor = ground floor. I have seen the First floor = First elevated floor all over the world, including the UK, Panama, former British colonies in Africa, etc.
I’ve heard several theories on why the floor above you is called the “first” including: it’s the first constructed floor above the ground and it’s the floor you are on after walking up the first flight of stairs. I don’t know if either of these are true, but I suspect that the convention of calling an “upstairs” floor the “first” lies somewhere in the hazy days of early multi-floor buildings.
Of course, medievel castles then rear their ugly head: was each floor indivudually named? I think castles were rare enough that no sort of convention evolved, because nothing makes “exclusivity” ring false like a common name. “Welcome to Castle John Smith. You’ll be staying in the brown room on the second floor. Enjoy your stay.”
Hopefully someone with actual knowledge of this will come along and end all this speculation!
I wonder, how do they number below ground floors in the US? Is it something like this?
3 Third Floor
2 Second floor
1 Ground floor
-1 First underground floor
-2 Second underground floor
If so, european numbering system is more intuitive, because ground floor is numbered as 0
In Norwegian and Swedish, the first floor is the one at ground level. In Danish, the first floor is the one up a flight of stairs. Danes just have to be difficult 
Many Scandinavians don’t know about the difference between American and British (etc) English in this area, including some who write subtitles for movies and TV programs. Sometimes I’ve been watching an American program on the tube, and the voice-over says “…on the fourth floor of this building”, while the subtitles read “…on the fifth floor of this building”, and the picture is of a building which has only four stories :smack:
Luckily the problem isn’t so wide-spread that we can’t deal with it – the elevators normally have little buttons marked 2, 3, 4, etc., and maybe sometimes 1 or G or L.
On a serious note, I was visiting at a hospital yesterday, and it struck me as odd that the designated first floor was really the second story! And all of the rooms on the second story began with one. And the ground floor was just “ground/G.”
Hey, so “story/storey” brings up a related question. In the UK and UK-system countries, does 1st-floor equal 1st-storey? What’s a one-level building called, then, a zero-story building? A two-story building then only has a first floor and ground floor, but the first floor is really the second story?