During major international sports competitions at airports, railway stations, foreign car numbers, and so on, you can see a code of three Latin letters next to the name of the country. These are international abbreviations for countries and independent territories. There are various systems for codifying names.
Why do we need country abbreviations
In different languages of the world, the names of countries can sound and look completely different due to the difference in the alphabet, the type of alphabet and the appearance of the letters. To avoid confusion in the international space at important official political or sporting events, several international systems of abbreviated names of the countries of the world were invented.
Universal codes of different countries and independent territories ISO (ISO) were developed by the United Nations. In addition to it, there is a classification of the International Olympic Committee, which is not exactly the same as ISO, the own code system of the International Football Federation (FIFA),Russian GOST classification, but they are much less popular and not suitable for all events and occasions. In addition to GOST, all of the above systems use the abbreviated name of the countries in English.
Types of international codification systems
ISO
The international ISO-3166-1 system is divided into 3 more categories: Alpha-2, Alpha-3 and digital codification.
Alpha-2 codes consist of two uppercase Latin letters, and Alpha-3 codes consist of three. Numeric codes consist of three digits.
The Alpha-2 system is used when the country needs to be kept as short as possible.
The ISO system is the most popular and the most used. To obtain its own ISO code, a country must be a member of the United Nations, or a member of a UN specialized agency, or participate in the drafting of the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice of the organization.
IOC
The International Olympic Committee coding system was developed based on the ISO Alpha-3 system, it also consists of three capital Latin letters, but sometimes the codes do not match. The IOC system is used at the Olympic Games and related events
FIFA
The letter codes for the abbreviated names of countries and independent territories were developed by the International Football Federation. They are used in football championships and other sports associated with the International Football Federation and continental confederations. Like ISO, Alpha-3 and systemInternational Olympic Committee FIFA codes consist of three capital Latin letters.
How state codes are formed
Abbreviated country names are three (rarely two) uppercase Latin letters. Abbreviations should not be repeated with each other, and should also be as intuitive as possible. Most often, the first letter of the code and the name of the state coincide, in some cases (for example, in the case of Australia), the first two or three letters in the name of the country are used as the code. If the name of a state or independent territory consists of several words, the first letters of each word may be used in the code. Sometimes the first letters of the syllables in the title are used.
International abbreviations of some countries
Codes of some popular countries and their comparison in different coding systems:
| Country | ISO Alpha-2 | ISO Alpha-3 | IOC | FIFA |
| Australia | AU | AUS | AUS | AUS |
| Austria | AT | AUT | AUT | AUT |
| Belarus | BY | BLR | BLR | BLR |
| UK | GB | GBR | GBR | |
| Germany | DE | DEU | GER | GER |
| Greece | GR | GRC | GRE | GRE |
| Dominica | DM | DMA | DMA | DMA |
| Dominican Republic | DO | DOM | DOM | DOM |
| Israel | IL | ISR | ISR | ISR |
| India | IN | IND | IND | IND |
| Spain | ES | ESP | ESP | ESP |
| Italy | IT | ITA | ITA | ITA |
| Kazakhstan | KZ | KAZ | KAZ | KAZ |
| Canada | CA | CAN | CAN | CAN |
|
Korean Democratic People's Party Republic |
CR | PRK | PRK | PRK |
| People's Republic of China | CN | CHN | CHN | CHN |
| Costa Rica | CR | CRI | CRC | CRC |
| Latvia | LV | LVA | LAT | LVA |
| Lithuania | LT | LTU | LTU | LTU |
| Liechtenstein | LI | LIE | LIE | LIE |
| Mexico | MH | FUR | FUR | FUR |
| New Zealand | NZ | NZL | NZL | NZL |
| United Arab Emirates | AE | ARE | UAE | UAE |
| Poland | PL | POL | POL | POL |
| Republic of Korea | KR | KOR | KOR | KOR |
| Russian Federation | RU | RUS | RUS | RUS |
| United States of America | US | USA | USA | USA |
| Thailand | TN | TNA | TNA | THA |
| Turkey | TR | TUR | TUR | TUR |
| Finland | FI | FIN | FIN | FIN |
| France | FR | FRA | FRA | FRA |
| Czech Republic | CZ | CZE | CZE | CZE |
| Estonia | EE | EST | EST | EST |
| South Africa | ZA | ZAF | RSA | RSA |
| Jamaica | JP | JPN | JPN | JPN |
The universal system of codes denoting the names of states is needed for various international events, international mail, sports competitions. Short, simple notations take up little space and are understood by people around the world, as the system is easy to remember and intuitive.
