Why the code is FL
Florida is one of eight states that own their initial letter outright. Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Utah are each the only state starting with theirs, so when the two-letter codes were fixed in October 1963 there was nothing for FL to collide with. The code could have been F plus almost any second letter. It took the obvious pair, letters one and two.
What FL replaced was Fla., three letters and a period. The problem the Post Office was solving was width, not ambiguity: sorting equipment reading the bottom line of an address needed every state to occupy exactly two character slots, next to the new ZIP Code, and Fla. did not fit the shape. Fla. never disappeared. It is still the standard form in court citations and it still fills headline space.
The name is older than either abbreviation and it is Spanish. Juan Ponce de León reached the peninsula in 1513 during Pascua Florida, the Spanish name for the Easter season, and called what he found La Florida. Every FL on a shipping label is two letters of a five-hundred-year-old Spanish phrase for a season of flowers.
Codes people confuse with FL
| Code | State | Why the mix-up happens |
|---|---|---|
| MI | Michigan | The Miami trap. People treat the city as if it had its own code and write Miami, MI. That is Michigan, and the package goes north instead of south. |
| FM | Federated States of Micronesia | The only other F code USPS uses. In an alphabetical code list FL and FM sit together, and a one-key slip sends mail across the Pacific. |
| FLA | Florida, older form | The pre-1963 abbreviation, still used in sports listings and print. Address validators reject it because it is three characters, not two. |
| GA | Georgia | Florida's neighbour on the map and the very next entry in an alphabetical state dropdown. Scroll one row too far and Georgia is what you selected. |
Quick facts about Florida
| Capital | Tallahassee |
| Largest city | Jacksonville, by population inside the city limits. Miami's metropolitan area is much larger. |
| Region | South |
| Statehood | 1845, the 27th state |
| Population band | Over 10 million |
| Area rank | 22nd of 50 |
Where you will see FL
- Mail. Tallahassee, FL and Miami, FL end the address line. This is the one context where Fla. is actually wrong rather than merely old-fashioned.
- Travel bookings, almost never. Florida trips are quoted in airport codes instead: MCO for Orlando International, a leftover from McCoy Air Force Base, plus FLL for Fort Lauderdale, MIA for Miami and TPA for Tampa. None of them is the state code.
- Sports. Hockey standings list the Florida Panthers as FLA, the three-letter form, while the state's other franchises are labelled by city.
- Stock tickers. FL on the New York Stock Exchange is Foot Locker, not a Florida index. A screener search for FL returns a shoe retailer.
- Data files. FIPS code 12 and ISO 3166-2 code US-FL, both fixed by alphabetical position.
- Crosswords. Clued as "Sunshine State: Abbr." or "Tallahassee's state: Abbr." for a two-letter answer.
Two letters, fifty states, one grid
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