Two other things answer to something close to VA, which is what sends people searching. West Virginia is a different state, and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs uses the identical pair of letters.
Why the code is VA
Virginia belongs to the easy group. Its code is simply the first two letters of the name, the same treatment given to Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Indiana when the Post Office Department released its two-letter table in October 1963. That table came three months after ZIP codes launched on 1 July 1963, and its purpose was mechanical: the closing line of an address had to hold city, state and ZIP in a width a sorting machine could parse, which left room for exactly two characters of state.
Virginia got the plain grab because it had the oldest claim on the letters. Its printed abbreviation Va. goes back to the colonial period, so the reform changed punctuation and nothing else. The two states named after it had to work around it. Vermont, admitted in 1791, takes its first letter and its last, V and T, matching the older newspaper form Vt. West Virginia, admitted in 1863, is built from the direction word plus the name, W then V.
Three states, three different construction rules, one shared opening sound. That is the whole reason VA is a search query rather than an obvious answer.
Codes people confuse with VA
| Code | State | Why the mix-up happens |
|---|---|---|
| WV | West Virginia | The names overlap because the states did. Counties in the west broke with Richmond during the Civil War and were admitted separately in 1863. Mail meant for Charleston WV still lands in Virginia. |
| VT | Vermont | Both open with V and both are two syllables starting Ver. Vermont's second letter comes from the end of the word, so nothing in VT points at where the letter was taken from. |
| VI | US Virgin Islands | Virgin and Virginia share six letters. In an alphabetical dropdown the territory sits a line or two from the state, so a stray click is easy. |
| MD | Maryland | The Washington commuter belt is written DMV, meaning DC, Maryland and Virginia. Readers outside the region take DMV for the motor vehicle office and lose track of which state was meant. |
Quick facts about Virginia
USPS code: VA
Capital: Richmond
Largest city: Virginia Beach
Region: South, Mid-Atlantic
Statehood: 1788, one of the original thirteen
Population band: 5 to 10 million
Virginia is one of four states styled a Commonwealth rather than a State, alongside Kentucky, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The label carries no legal difference, and the postal code ignores it.
Where you will see VA
- Veterans Affairs. A VA loan, a VA clinic and VA benefits all refer to the federal department, not the state. The separator is position: two capitals at the end of an address line are the state, VA in front of a noun is the agency.
- Mail. Richmond VA on the last line, capitals, no periods, ZIP after it.
- College sports. UVA is the University of Virginia. Virginia Tech is shortened to VT in scoreboards and brackets, which is Vermont's postal code, so the abbreviation clash runs in both directions.
- Pro sports. No NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL team plays its home games in Virginia. Fans in the north of the state follow franchises based in Washington and Maryland.
- Crosswords. "Old Dominion: abbr." is the standard clue, Old Dominion being Virginia's long-standing nickname.
- Data fields. The full international form is US-VA. Standing alone in a country list, VA is the code for Vatican City.
Fix the V states for good
Statedoku sets a daily grid built from real state data, so VA, VT and WV stop blurring together.
Play today's puzzle →Common questions
Is VA Virginia or Vermont?
VA is Virginia. Vermont is VT.
What is the difference between VA and WV?
They are separate states. West Virginia split from Virginia and joined the Union in 1863.
Does VA always mean Virginia?
No. Outside an address, VA usually means the Department of Veterans Affairs.
What is the capital of Virginia?
Richmond. The largest city is Virginia Beach.