List of geographic acronyms and initialisms


This is a list of geographic acronyms and initialisms. That is, it's a list of the names of cities, towns, lakes, and other geographic places that are derived from acronyms. Acronyms are abbreviations formed by the initial letter or letters of the words that make up a multi-word term. Other names, herein called initialisms, have been formed from the initials of multiple people, geographic names, or ordinary words. The main difference between the two is that, in the latter group, the names can be ordered in whatever way is convenient to form the new name.
For the most part, the geographic names in this list were derived from three or more other names or words. Those derived from only two names are usually considered portmanteaus and can be found in the List of geographic portmanteaus. However, there are exceptions to this two/three rule in both lists, so it is more of a guideline than a hard-and-fast rule.

Acronyms

Company names

Many of these places are former company towns.
Many of these names were the result of neighborhood rebranding, first in New York, and then in other cities. The names were mostly coined in imitation of Soho in Manhattan.

New York

These are derived from the names of a single person and always include parts, but not all, of more than one of their names. Since the order of such names is fixed, they can be considered a form of acronym. When combining names of more than one person, the order is not fixed, so such names are either in the List of geographic portmanteaus if from only two names, or in the Initialism section below for those from multiple names.
The names in this section are composed of elements of three or more other names or words. Unlike acronyms, there's no predefined ordering for the names, so they can be placed in whatever order makes for a good name. Names combining only two other names are more properly called portmanteaus. See List of geographic portmanteaus for such names.

Personal names